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.A43  V 

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American 
series 

religious 

leaders 

Slnicncan  ilcligiou^i^  Scaticr^ 


MARK  HOPKINS 


FRANKLIN  CARTER 


PRESIDENT   OF  WILLIAMS    COLLEGE 


BOSTON    AND   NEW    YORK 
HOUGHTOX,  MIFFLIN  AND   COMPANY 

1892 


Copyright,  1892, 
By  franklin  CARTER. 

AU  rights  reserved. 


The  Riverside  Press,  Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.  S.  A. 
Electrotyped  and  Printed  by  H.  O.  Houghton  &  Company. 


PREFACE. 


An  estimate  of  Mark  Hopkins  cannot  be  out 
of  place  in  a  series  of  American  Religious  Leaders. 
He  belonged  among  the  later  religious  leaders  of 
New  England.  His  endowments,  his  attainments, 
and  his  long  service  made  him  a  unique  figure 
among  the  teachers  of  this  age.  But  for  a  com- 
plete estimate  of  him  as  a  man,  there  is  a  lack  of 
material.  His  own  letters,  with  the  exception  of 
those  written  to  the  late  Rev.  Dr.  Ray  Palmer  and 
President  Garfield,  have  been  generally  lost.  His 
life  in  a  country  town  was  devoid  of  picturesque 
and  varying  incident.  He  lived  one  side  of  the  ad- 
vantages of  stimulating  society  and  the  intellectual 
discoveries  of  his  time.  The  great  thrills  of  mod- 
ern thought  reached  him  chiefly  through  newspa- 
pers and  books.  His  profound  and  far-reaching 
influence  in  the  country  was  for  that  reason  all  the 
surer  testimony  to  the  wisdom  and  power  of  his 
manhood. 


IV  PREFACE. 

It  was  perhaps  not  without  propriety  that  I  was 
asked  to  examine  into  the  elements  of  his  charac- 
ter and  teaching,  and  to  compose  this  book. 

I  was  his  pupil,  his  colleague  when  he  was  pres- 
ident, and  later  his  colleague  in  an  inverted  rela- 
tion when  I  became  his  successor  as  president  of 
the  college,  thougli  not  immediately  following  him 
in  this  office.  My  acquaintance  with  him  was  not 
as  leng-thy  as  that  of  some  others,  but  I  knew  him 
from  widely  divergent  standpoints,  and  only  by 
these  later  years  of  the  anxieties  and  cares  that  be- 
long to  the  presidency  of  a  New  England  country 
colleo^e  have  I  come  to  the  full  understandino^  and 
appreciation  of  the  great  qualities  which  marked  his 
career.  The  estimate  which  is  here  presented  is 
the  mature  estimate  of  one  who  has  thus  had  un- 
usual opportunities  of  knowing  him,  and  of  enter- 
ing into  sympathy  with  his  activities.  But  this 
will  not  compensate  for  the  loss  of  those  expressions 
of  his  earlier  and  later  inner  life  of  growth  which 
all  who  knew  him  woidd  highly  value.  Xor  will 
it  serve  to  relieve  much  the  lack  of  that  incident 
which  life  in  a  larger  community  would  j^robably 
have  supplied.  This  little  book,  then,  whose  writ- 
ing has  been  a  pleasant  labor  and  the  grateful 
recoofnition  of  a  larg-e  debt,  is  sent  forth  with  re- 
gret  that  it  is  not  fuller  and  richer  in  material,  but 


PREFACE.  V 

not  without  confidence  that  the  judgments  ex- 
pressed in  it  are  accurate,  and  will  be  indorsed 
by  those  who  have  penetrated  the  true  secrets  of 

this  beneficent  life. 

Franklin  Carter. 

Williams  College,  October  26,  1891. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

PAGE 

The  Early  Years 1 

CHAPTER  II. 

The  Professor ,    ...    21 

CHAPTER   III. 
The  College 87 

CHAPTER  IV. 
The  Administrator 57 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Rebellion  of  1868 77 

CHAPTER  VI. 
The  Teacher 99 

CHAPTER  VII. 
The  Author 133 

CHAPTER   VIII. 
The  Preacher 181 


viii  CONTEyTS. 

CHAPTER  IX. 

The  President   of   the  American  Board   of   Commis- 
sioners FOR  Foreign  Missions 203 

CHAPTER  X. 
The  Crisis  in  the  Board  of  Missions      239 

CHAPTER  XI. 
The  Friend 277 

CHAPTER   XII. 
The  TheolocxIAn 311 

CHAPTER  XIII. 
The  Closing  Years 331 

CHAPTER  XIV. 
The  Final  Tribute 349 

List  of  Rev.  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins's  Published  Writings  367 

Index 371 


CHRONOLOGICAL   TABLE. 


The  principal  dates  in  Dr.  Hopkins's  life  are  here 
arranged  in  chronological  order.  In  certain  cases  the 
invitations  to  positions  in  other  institutions  did  not  be- 
come formal,  but  I  have  judged  from  the  correspondence 
that  in  all  the  instances  recorded  in  this  list  the  invita- 
tion would  have  been  formally  given,  if  Dr.  Hopkins 
had  shown  a  disposition  to  encourage  the  belief  that 
he  could  be  drawn  away  from  Williams  College.  Doubt- 
less his  regular  refusal  of  such  invitations  prevented 
even  the  informal  suggestion  of  many  other  such  offers. 
But  the  list  is  long  and  varied  enough  to  show  the  very 
high  esteem  in  wdiich  he  was  held  as  teacher,  thinker, 
and  preacher  by  the  best  informed  in  our  land ;  it 
shows  also  his  loyal  devotion  to  his  own  college. 

1802.  Born  February  2,  at  Stoekbridge,  Mass. 

1821.  Entered  Williams  College  as  a  Sophomore. 

1824.  Was  graduated  as  Bachelor  of  Arts. 

1825.  Tutor  in  Williams  College. 

1827.  Delivered  the  Master's  oration  on  "  Mystery." 

1829.  Graduated  in  medicine  from  Berkshire  Medical  School. 

1830.  Appointed  Professor  of    Moral  Philosophy   and   Rhetoric 

in  Williams  College. 
1833.  Licensed  to  preach  by  the  Berkshire  Association. 

1836.  Elected  President  of  Williams  College. 

1837.  Created  Doctor  of  Divinity  by  Dartmouth  College. 
1841.  Received  the  same  degree  from  Harvard  College. 

1843.  Elected  Fellow  of  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons 

in  New  York  city. 

1844.  Lowell  Lectures  on  '"  The  Evidences  of  Christianity.'' 


X  CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE. 

1844.  Invited  to  become  Pastor  of  the  Plymouth  Church.  Brook- 
lyn, N.  Y. 

1847.  Elected  Bartlett  Professor  of  ISacred  Rhetoric  in  Andover 

Theological  Seminary. 

1848.  Elected   Member  of    the  Board   of    Visitors  in   the  same 

seminary. 
1850.  Offered  the  Chancellorship  of  the  University  of  New  York. 

1850.  Appointed    Professor   of    Systematic    Theology   in    Union 

Theological  Seminary. 

1851.  Called  to  the  j^astorate  of    the  Mercer  Street  Church  in 

New  York  city. 

1852.  Urged  to  accept  a  nomination  to  the  presidency  of  the  Uni- 

versity of  Michigan. 

1853.  Invited  to  become  Pastor  of  a  new  Presbyterian  Church  in 

Philadelphia. 
1857.  Received  the  degree  of  LL.  D.  from  the  Regents  of  New 

York  University. 
1857.  Elected  President  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 

for  Foreign  Missions. 

1857.  Elected  Vice-President  of  the  National  Society  for  Com- 

pensated Emancipation. 

1858.  Offered   professorship    of    Didactic  Theology   in   Chicago 

Theological  Seminary. 
1860-61.  (December,  1860,  and  January,  1861.)     Lowell  Lectures 

on  "  Moral  Science." 
1861.  Visited  Europe. 
1867-68.  (December,  1867,  and  January,  1868.)    LoweU  Lectures. 

"  The  Law  of  Love  and  Love  as  a  Law." 
1868.  Elected   President  of  the   Academy  of   Metaphysical  and 

Ethical  Sciences. 
1871-72.  (December,  1871,  and  January,  1872.)    Lowell  Lectures. 

'^  An  Outline  Study  of  Man." 

1872.  Resigned  presidency  of  Williams  College,  but  retained  the 

professorship  of  Intellectual  and  Moral  Philosophy. 

1873.  Invited  to  the  Chair  of  Intellectual  and  Moral  Philosophy 

in  Bowdoin  College. 

1875.  Course  of  lectures  before   the  Yale  Theological  Seminary 

on  "  The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man." 

1876.  Lectures  before  the  students   of    the  same   seminary   on 

"  The  Scriptural  Idea  of  God." 


CHRONOLOGICAL  TABLE.  xi 

1870.  Invited  to  the  direction  of  the  Post-Graduate  Department 
in  Boston  University. 

1.^7(i.  Lectures  on  "Scriptural  Anthropolog-y  "  before  the  Tlieolo- 
gical  ISchool  of  Boston  University. 

1881.  A  second  trip  to  Europe. 

1883.  Lectures  on  '*  The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man  "  before  Princeton 
Theological  Students.  These  lectures  were  also  delivered 
in  Chicag-o.  Illinois,  and  Oberlin.  Ohio. 

1886.  Created  Doctor  of  Laws  at  the  2.">()th  anniversary  of  Har- 
vard Universitj'. 

1886.  Took  position   at  Des  Moines,  Iowa,   at  the  annual  meet- 

ings of  the  A.  B.  C.  F.  M.,  for  the  reference  to  a  council 
of  applications  for  missionary  service  "  in  difficult  cases 
turning  upon  the  doctiinal  views  of  candidates.'' 

1887.  Died,  June  17. 


THE   EARLY   YEARS. 


"  My  parents  were  professors  of  religion :  and  I  descended  from 
Christian  ancestors,  both  by  my  father  and  my  mother,  as  far 
back  as  I  have  been  able  to  trace  my  descent.  I  conchide  I  and 
my  ancestors  descended  from  those  called  Puritans  in  the  days  of 
Queen  Elizabeth,  above  two  hundred  years  ago,  and  have  con- 
tinued to  bear  that  denomination  since,  and  were  the  first  settlers 
of  New  England.  This  I  have  considered  to  be  the  most  honor- 
able and  happy  descent,  to  spring  from  ancestors  who  have  been 
professors  of  relig'ion  without  interruption  during-  the  course  of 
two  hundred  years  and  more :  and  many  of  them,  if  not  all,  real 
Christians." — Samuel  Hopkins's  Autobiography. 

"  The  thoug-ht  of  our  past  years  in  me  doth  breed 
Perpetual  benediction :   .  .  . 
.  .  .  for  those  obstinate  questioning's 
Of  sense  and  outward  things, 

.  .  .  for  those  first  affections 
Those  shadowy  recollections, 
Which,  be  they  what  they  may, 
Are  yet  the  fountain  light  of  all  our  day, 
And  yet  a  master  light  of  all  our  seeing  : 
Uphold  us,  cherish,  and  have  the  power  to  make 
Our  noisy  years  seem  moments  in  the  being 
Of  the  eternal  silence  :   truths  that  wake 
To  perish  never." 

Wordsworth,  Intimations  of  Immortality. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE   EARLY   YEARS. 

Among  the  low  hills  that  form  the  Naugatuck 
valley  in  Connecticut,  in  the  year  1677,  the  actual 
settlement  at  Mattatuck,  now  Waterbury,  began. 
In  1680,  Stephen  Hopkins,  the  son  of  John  who 
settled  in  Cambridge  in  1634,  went  to  Waterbury 
from  Hartford  and  received  a  house-lot.  He  built 
a  mill  on  Mill,  now  Mad  River,  which  he  probably 
erected  to  provide  occupation  and  a  livelihood  for 
his  eldest  son  «Tohn,  and  possibly  the  house-lot  was 
originally  secured  for  him.  John  Hopkins  be- 
came influential  in  the  new  settlement,  and  held 
nearly  all  the  offices  which  a  respected  and  enter- 
prising man  in  such  a  community  could  attain. 
He  was  to^vn  clerk  one  year  and  tavern-keeper  (no 
mean  distinction)  for  several  years,  and  received 
military  honors.  John's  second  son,  Stephen,  born 
in  1689,  was  also  a  prominent  citizen,  and  main- 
tained well  the  dignity  of  family  which  his  father's 
services  had  established. 

His  third  son,  Timothy,  born  in  1691,  was  prob- 
ably the  most  influential  man  of  his  generation 
in  the  town.  He  was  often  constable,  selectman, 
grand  juror,  and  moderator  of  the  town  meeting. 


4  MABK  HOPKINS. 

He  was  justice  of  the  peace  for  eight  years,  and 
represented  the  town  many  times  in  the  General 
Court.  He  was  also  a  man  of  military  distinction, 
being  appointed  captain  in  1732.  He  was  a  man 
of  more  than  ordinary  intelligence,  a  type  of  that 
old-fashioned  integrity  and  religion  and  authority 
which  was  not  uncommon  in  the  New  England  vil- 
lages during  the  last  century. 

One  of  his  sons  was  Samuel  Hopkins,  the  cel- 
ebrated divine.  The  latter  alludes  in  his  autobi- 
ography to  the  influences  of  his  childhood  in  the 
following  appreciative  words :  — 

''I  have  considered  it  a  great  favor  of  God  that 
I  was  born  and  educated  in  a  religious  family,  and 
among  a  peojile  in  a  country  town,  where  a  regard 
to  religion  and  morality  was  common  and  prevalent, 
and  the  education  of  children  and  youth  was  gen- 
erally practiced  in  such  a  degree  that  yoimg  people 
were  generally  orderly  in  their  behavior,  and  ab- 
stained from  those  open  vices  which  were  then  too 
common  in  seaport  and  populous  j^laces."  He  con- 
gratulated himself  that  his  ancestors  on  both  sides 
"had  been  professors  of  religion  without  interrup- 
tion during  the  course  of  two  hundred  years  or 
more :  and  many  of  them,  if  not  all,  real  Christians." 

Samuel's  father,  Timothy,  died  in  1749,  when 
Samuel  was  twenty-eight  years  old.  Samuel  had 
been  graduated  from  Yale,  and  trained  in  theology 
by  Jonathan  Edwards;  became  in  1743  the  settled 
minister  at  Great  Barrington,  then  called  Housa- 
tonnuc,  a  parish  of  Sheffield,  in  Berkshire  County, 


THE  EARLY   YEARS.  5 

Massachusetts.  It  was  while  settled  over  this  par- 
ish that  he  first  published  sermons,  three  in  num- 
ber, the  very  title  of  which  seems  to  transport  the 
reader  to  the  last  century.  The  title  runs :  "  Sin 
through  Divine  Interposition  an  advantage  to  the 
Universe,  and  yet  this  no  Excuse  for  Sin  or  En- 
couragement to  it:  illustrated  and  proved:  and 
God's  Wisdom  and  Holiness  in  the  Permission  of 
Sin :  and  that  his  will  herein  is  the  same  as  his  re- 
vealed will  shown  and  confirmed  in  three  sermons 
from  Eom.  iii.  5,  6,  7,  8."  These  sermons  were 
first  published  in  1759,  though  there  was  at  least 
one  subsequent  edition. 

The  youngest  brother  of  Samuel  was  Mark,  born 
in  1739,  and  ten  years  old  when  his  father  died. 
The  care  of  three  younger  brothers  devolved  upon 
the  eldest,  Samuel,  from  that  event ;  and  Mark  was 
taken  to  his  brother's  home  in  Great  Barrington 
and  by  him  fitted  for  college.  He  was  graduated 
from  Yale  in  1758,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at 
the  first  session  of  the  Berkshire  court  in  Septem- 
ber, 1761.  He  was  fitted  both  by  his  talents  and 
trainins:  to  maintain  the  honorable  traditions  of 
his  family,  and  was  rapidly  advanced  through  the 
various  public  positions  to  which  those  serious  and 
stormy  times  called  only  able  men.  The  first  and 
most  distinguished  Theodore  Sedgwick  studied  law 
in  his  office.  He  early  espoused  the  cause  of  the 
colonies,  and  was  a  delegate  from  Great  Barrington 
to  the  county  convention  convened  at  Stockbridge 
July  6,  1774,  and  became  one  of  the  committee  who 


6  MARE  HOPKINS. 

drafted  the  resolutions  passed  by  the  convention  on 
the  relations  to  the  mother  country.  It  is  not  to 
be  forgotten  that  this  convention  was  the  first  of 
the  county  conventions  that  assembled  in  Massa- 
chusetts to  consider  the  encroachments  of  Great 
Britain,  and  that  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the 
committee  of  v/hich  the  first  Mark  Hopkins  was  a 
member  struck  the  keynote  of  loyalty  to  the  king, 
but  of  devotion  to  the  maintenance  of  the  rights  of 
the  colonies,  which  influenced  subsequent  conven- 
tions and  led  to  the  Revolution.  He  was,  when  the 
Revolution  became  actual,  a  member  of  the  Commit- 
tee of  Safety,  and  his  wise  energy  was  felt  through- 
out the  county  in  giving  direction  and  efficiency  to 
the  patriotic  movement. 

He  had,  too,  like  his  father  and  great-grand- 
father, an  adaptation  for  military  command,  and 
was  active  in  organizing  and  equij^ping  the  militia, 
of  which  he  became  colonel.  In  the  summer  of 
1776  he  commanded  a  detachment  of  Berkshire 
militia  which  had  been  summoned  into  the  field  by 
General  John  Fellows,  and  was  stationed  for  a 
while  at  Peekskill.  While  engaged  in  the  service 
he  was  taken  with  t>q:)hoid  fever  at  White  Plains, 
and  to  prevent  his  falling  into  the  hands  of  the  Brit- 
ish army,  who  were  marching  on  the  place,  he  was 
carried  from  his  sick-bed  in  the  arms  of  a  soldier 
to  a  place  of  safety.  The  excitement  and  fatigue 
gave  an  unfavorable  turn  to  the  disease,  and  he 
died  two  days  previous  to  the  fight  at  White 
Plains,  October  26,  1776. 


THE  EARLY   YEARS.  1 

The  wife  of  Colonel  Mark  Hopkins,  the  grand- 
mother of  President  Hopkins,  was  Electa  Sar- 
geant,  daughter  of  Rev.  John  Sargeant,  the  first 
teacher  of  the  missionary  school  among  the  In- 
dians at  Stockbridge.  The  conception  of  this 
school  originated  with  Rev.  Samuel  Hopkins,  of 
West  Spring-field,  a  younger  brother  of  Timothy, 
and  thus  an  uncle  of  the  great  Dr.  Samuel.  Mr. 
Sarsreant  was  a  man  of  unusual  talents,  of  sweet 
temper,  of  engaging  manners,  and  was  a  thorough 
scholar.  Among  the  books  owned  by  the  late  Dr. 
Mark  Hopkins  is  a  volume  of  Livy,  with  the  in- 
scription on  the  fly-leaf :  — 

"lohannis  Sargeant,  Liber  Donum  Pupillorum, 
An.  Dom.  1735." 

As  the  Indian  school  began  in  1734,  it  has  been 
supposed  that  this  book  was  a  present  to  Mr.  Sar- 
geant from  the  grateful  Indians  gathered  into  the 
school,  and  that  the  selection  of  a  classical  author 
was  made  for  them  by  some  scholarly  friend  of  their 
teacher.  But  as  Mr.  Sargeant  remained  only  a 
few  weeks  in  the  school  in  1734,  and,  securing  a 
temporary  substitute,  returned  to  Yale  College  to 
finish  his  four  years'  engagement  as  tutor,  which 
ended  the  next  summer  (1735),  there  can  be  no  doubt 
that  the  volume  of  Li\^  was  a  present  from  his  pu- 
pils at  Yale.  Professor  F.  B.  Dexter,  of  Yale  Col- 
lege, says  of  Mr.  Sargeant:  "As  a  tutor  he  was 
one  of  the  most  successful  holders  of  that  office  in 
the  early  history  of  the  college."  ^     Mr.  Sargeant 

1   Yale  Biographies  and  Annals,  p.  395. 


8  MARK  HOPKINS. 

studied  the  language  of  the  Housatonnuc  Indians  so 
diligently  that  in  1737  he  was  able  to  preach  with- 
out an  interpreter,  and  the  Indians  were  afterwards 
wont  to  say,  "Our  minister  speaks  our  language 
better  than  we  ourselves  can  do." 

Mr.  Sargeant's  wife,  the  mother  of  Mrs.  Colo- 
nel Mark  IIo23kins,  was  the  eldest  daughter  of 
Colonel  Ephraim  Williams.  The  second  Colonel 
Ephraim  Williams,  her  elder  half-brother,  was  the 
founder  of  Williams  College.  Thus,  through  his 
grandmother,  Electa  Sargeant,  Dr.  Hopkins  had 
in  his  veins  the  blood  of  the  families  that  founded 
the  missionary  school  among  the  Indians  at  Stock- 
bridge,  and  the  college  at  Williamstown  of  which 
he  afterwards  became  president. 

Colonel  Mark's  eldest  son,  Archibald,  a  farmer, 
a  man  perhaps  of  less  striking  gifts  than  some  of 
the  line,  but  a  true  Hopkins,  lived  and  died  in 
Stockbridge,  where,  on  February  4,  1802,  his  eld- 
est son,  Mark,  was  born.  It  is  his  life  and  thought, 
which  were  of  great  service  to  the  church  and  to 
mankind,  that  an  effort  is  here  made  to  record,  not 
in  minute  details,  for  these  have  been  largely  lost, 
but  in  the  strong  outlines  which  his  pupils  love  to 
honor. 

It  is  a  somewhat  singular  circumstance  that 
nearly  all  papers  relating  to  the  early  life  of  the 
subject  of  this  study  seem  to  have  disappeared. 
A  long  life,  whose  constant  residence  was  in  one 
county,  which  had  intimate  associations  with  the 
best   people    of   the    county  from  childhood,    and 


THE  EAELY   YEARS.  9 

in  its  influence  affected  thousands  of  educated  men 
throughout  the  land,  seems  scarcely  to  have  had 
a  beginning.  As  his  life  stretched  over  eighty- 
five  years,  those  older  persons  who  knew  him  as 
a  little  boy  have  long  since  passed  away.  To  very 
few  now  living  was  he  known  in  the  days  even  of 
his  undergraduate  life,  and  the  pupils  of  his  con- 
nection with  the  college  as  professor  are  no  longer 
numerous.  To  all  these  he  seemed  to  have  the 
full  maturity  of  manhood  from  the  first.  Now  that 
a  complete  picture  of  his  career  would  have  great 
interest  for  those  who  were  personally  acquainted 
with  him  and  for  many  others,  the  inability  to  pre- 
sent some  satisfactory  account  of  his  boyhood  and 
youth  is  disappointing.  Perhaps  it  is  this  part 
of  his  life  which  those  who  knew  him  in  man- 
hood, when  the  impression  of  his  personality  was 
so  striking  and  definite,  would  value  most  highly. 
One  would  be  glad  to  learn  Avhether  the  heaven 
which  "lies  about  us  in  our  infancy"  revealed  itself 
in  any  peculiar  way;  whether  the  "white  celestial 
thoughts "  that  the  poets  give  to  childhood  were 
early  soiled,  as  in  most  cases  they  are,  by  the  de- 
velopment of  selfishness  and  passion.  His  mother, 
who  was  Mary  Curtis,  of  Stockbridge,  a  genuine 
descendant  of  the  Puritans,  a  woman  of  large  in- 
telligence and  force,  and  a  firm  believer  in  the  in- 
spiration of  the  Bible,  although  she  never  made  a 
formal  profession  of  religion,  brought  up  her  sons 
with  scnipulous  fidelity  to  the  development  in  them 
of  the  purest  morality.     Doubtless  from  her  lie  and 


10  MARK  HOPKINS. 

his  brother  Albert  learned  something  of  that  rever- 
ence for  God's  word  which  manifested  itself  in  their 
later  life  with  perhaps  equal  distinctness,  but  in 
somewhat  different  ways.  The  childhood  of  these 
gifted  boys  (there  was  a  third  brother  who  early 
died,  but  not  until  he  had  shown  unusual  talents  as 
a  civil  engineer,  and  as  an  artist)  must  have  had 
in  it  much  that  was  vigorous  and  healthful.  The 
final  eminence  of  Mark  as  a  philosopher,  of  Albert 
as  an  astronomer,  and  the  traces  of  the  genius  of 
Henry,  who  seems  to  have  had  an  Italian's  love  of 
color  and  a  Greek's  perception  of  form,  and  to  whom 
the  creative  touch  was  not  wanting,  would  suggest 
rare  advantages  and  incentives.  But  the  father 
was  a  farmer,  and  the  boys  w^orked  more  or  less 
upon  the  farm,  as  the  district  school  hours  and  the 
seasons  permitted.  It  is  hardly  to  the  environment 
that  we  must  attribute  their  large  development. 
The  beauty  of  the  Housatonic  valley  was  not  lost 
upon  Henry,  and  the  love  of  nature  that  Albert 
showed  was  quickened  by  the  search  for  and  discov- 
ery of  rare  flowers,  and  by  the  study  of  the  mani- 
fold unity  of  vegetable  and  animal  life.  But  Mark, 
who  was  also  very  fond  of  nature,  probably  had  a 
deeper  tendency  to  reflection;  and  while  for  the 
coming  of  all  the  boys  the  manly,  self-respecting 
training  of  several  generations  had  been  preparing, 
in  Mark  peculiarly  the  influence  of  the  serious  New 
England  thinkers  was  to  be  reproduced. 

When  he  first  w^ent  to  the  district  school,  at  the 
age  of  four,  the  teacher,  taking  the  reading  book  in 


THE  EARLY    YEARS.  11 

his  hand,  asked:  "And  where  can  you  read,  my 
little  fellow?"  "Just  where  you  please,  sir!  "  was 
the  reply.  The  teacher  found  it  so.  He  could  read 
anywhere,  and  was  always  at  the  head  of  his  class. 

This  incident  is  suo^'estive  of  the  care  with  which 
his  mother  had  begun  his  intellectual  training.  He 
showed  aptitude  for  learning  in  all  his  school  years, 
but  was  not  pretentious,  though  apparently  some- 
what ambitious.  His  brother  Albert  in  later  years 
wrote  of  him  to  a  friend  as  follows :  — 

"Study  was  more  congenial  to  my  brother  Mark 
than  to  me.  He  entered  upon  the  pursuit  of  know- 
ledge, prompted,  1  think,  by  a  love  for  it,  mixed 
doubtless  with  something  of  a  worldly  ambition." 
There  was  so  much  genuine  humor  in  the  two 
brothers,  who  became  connected  with  the  college  as 
teachers,  that  one  cannot  help  thinking  that  their 
boyhood  must  have  had  in  it  a  deal  of  robust  fun. 
Mark  was  fitted  for  college  partly  at  Clinton,  New 
York,  partly  by  his  uncle.  Rev.  Jared  Curtis,  who 
had  for  a  time  the  control  of  the  Stockbridge  Acad- 
emy, and  he  was  for  a  little  while  a  member  of  the 
Lenox  Academy. 

Before  entering  college  he  taught  school  in  Rich- 
mond. A  letter  from  a  cousin,  the  Rev.  Moses 
Ashley  Curtis  (Williams,  1827),  written  thirty-five 
years  after,  gives  some  interesting  details  of  the 
experience.  The  cousin  writes  from  Hillsborough, 
Xorth  Carolina,  and  begins  his  letter  with  the 
statement  that  he,  the  writer,  is  officiating  as  cler- 
gyman once  a  month  for  a  small  settlement  not  far 


12  MARK  HOPKIXS. 

from  where  lie  is  writing.  He  lias  recently  stayed 
with  a  physician,  who  asked  in  the  morning  as  they 
were  waiting  for  breakfast,  '4f  I  knew  a  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, President  of  some  College  at  the  North.  I 
need  not  tell  you  that  he  brought  his  eggs  to  the 
right  market  that  time.  'Why,'  says  he,  'Mark 
Hopkins  was  my  teacher,  when  I  was  a  lad  in  Vir- 
ginia. '  ^  The  Doctor  listened  with  great  interest 
to  what  I  could  tell  him  of  you,  and  had  to  repeat 
my  information  and  our  relationship  to  the  differ- 
ent members  of  the  famil}^  as  they  came  in.  He 
seemed  to  think  that  he  was  rather  a  favorite  with 
you,  though  he  says  you  were  much  esteemed  by  all. 
He  told  me  of  your  boxing  young  Howerton's  ears 
pretty  roundly  for  a  bit  of  impertinence,  when  you 
took  him  to  task  for  picking  some  young  kildees 
and  then  setting  them  to  swim  in  a  pond.   . 

"  On  telling  him  that  I  sometimes  had  communi- 
cation with  you,  he  desired  me  to  say  that  he  still 
holds  you  in  very  affectionate  remembrance." 

1  It  is  believed  by  Dr.  Hopkins's  family  that  Mr.  Curtis  has 
here  substituted  the  name  of  the  State,  Virginia,  for  Richmond, 
and  that  the  Richmond  referred  to  was  not  in  Virginia,  but  the 
toAvn  in  Berkshire  County  lying-  northwest  of  Stockbridge,  Dr. 
Hopkins's  native  town,  where  it  is  certain  Hojikins  taught.  Tlie 
name  of  one  pupil.  Speed,  mentioned  in  the  letter,  was  known  in 
Richmond,  Mass.,  at  the  time  Hopkins  taught  there.  Howerton 
may  have  been  a  Christian  name.  Another  reason  for  believing- 
that  Richmond  in  Massachusetts  became  in  Mr.  Curtis's  mind 
Richmond,  Virginia,  is  the  statement  that  Speed  made  that  Hop- 
kins, when  traveling-  as  ag:ent  of  the  American  Tract  Society, 
called  upon  him  in  central  New  York,  where  he  was  then  living. 
A  migration  from  Richmond,  Virginia,  in  those  days  to  central 
New  York  was  not  very  likely  to  occur. 


THE  EARLY   YEARS.  13 

We  see  here  that  the  young  teacher  had  the  same 
power  of  attaching  his  pupils  to  himself  as  was 
later  exhibited  by  the  venerable  president,  and  it 
is  interesting  to  note  that  this  power  rested  on  the 
same  love  of  manliness  and  scorn  of  meanness. 

A  more  interesting  picture  in  the  same  letter  is 
the  reference  to  the  return  home  of  the  young  Mark 
Hopkins :  — 

"I  remember  your  return  from  that  (then)  far 
away  country.  I  was  going  after  the  cow  at  even- 
ing, and  had  just  entered  the  willow-flanked  lane 
below  Colonel  Dwight's,  when  I  saw  you  approach- 
ing whistling  upon  a  blade  of  grass  between  your 
thumbs  a  hi  grandpa.  I  knew  you  at  a  distance; 
but  when  you  saluted  me  and  took  me  by  the  hand, 
in  my  sheej^ishness  I  hung  my  head,  and  told  you 
'I  did  not  know  you.'  What  fools  does  bashful- 
ness  make  of  children !  I  did  the  same  thing  once 
by  Edwin  Dwight.  I  have  not  yet  got  over  the 
shame  of  such  contemptible  folly,  and  I  feel  mean^ 
whenever  I  think  of  it.  You  spent  part  of  that 
evening  at  our  house  by  the  old  burying  ground. 
I  remember  where  you  sat  and  how  you  sat.  You 
can  sit  so  still,  sometimes.  I  know  I  then  thought 
it  a  very  funny  mode.  If  you  have  forgotten,  I 
can  inform  you  that  you  brought  from  Virginia 
$540,1  a^g  J  learned  from  your  own  mouth  that  even- 

1  As  Hopkins,  when  studying-  medicine,  taught  in  New  York 
city,  this  amount,  apparently  too  large  to  be  earned  in  Richmond, 
Mass.,  may  have  been  gained  there,  and  the  return  Avould  be  more 
important,  both  to  the  boy  Curtis  and  to  the  Hopkins  family,  than 
that  from  teaching  in  Richmond,  Mass.     It  is  very  probable  that 


14  MARK  HOPKINS. 

ing,  and  that  you  left  it,  if  I  am  not  mistaken  (for 
I  am  not  so  certain  about  this)  for  some  sort  of  in- 
vestment in  the  hands  of  Harry  Sedgwick  in  New 
York." 

The  picture  of  the  young  Berkshire  student  com- 
ing home  from  a  few  months'  work  as  teacher  with 
an  exuberance  of  spirits  that  finds  expression  in 
whistling  on  a  blade  of  grass  between  his  thumbs 
is  charming.  It  is  "a  la  grandpa^''''  and  he  is 
stealing  home  to  surprise  his  mother  and  give  her 
his  renewed  homage  after  a  long  absence.  The 
other  picture  of  his  sitting  so  as  to  make  a  deep 
impression  on  the  mind  of  a  younger  boy  suggests 
that  already  thoughtful  study  of  the  grave  problems 
of  life  had  produced  an  effect  upon  his  manner; 
that  there  was  something  peculiar  and  striking  even 
at  that  early  date  in  his  personal  presence.  He 
entered  Williams  College  as  a  Sophomore  in  1821, 
and  was  graduated  valedictorian  of  his  class  in 
1824.  A  single  classmate,  the  Hon.  Harvey  Eice,^ 
of  Cleveland,  survives,  and  he  has  furnished  to  me 
so  interesting  a  paper  of  reminiscences  of  his 
friend,  that  it  is  here  given  entire. 

"The  late  Rev.  Dr.  Mark  Hopkins  was  one  of 
my  classmates  in  Williams  College,  and  graduated 
with  me  in  the  class  of  1824.  I  think  he  entered 
college  in  advance  of  the  Freshman  year.     He  came 

the  boy  received  a  wrong  impression  in  respect  to  what  was  said, 
but  not  about  wliat  he  saw. 

1  Mr.  Rice  died  November  7,  1891,  after  this  manuscript  went 
to  the  printer. 


THE  EABLY  YEARS.  15 

into  the  class  with  the  reputation  of  being  a  bright 
scholar,  and  continued  to  maintain  that  reputation. 
We  soon  became,  I  hardly  know  why,  mutual 
friends.  He  seemed  as  remarkable  for  his  modesty 
and  unassuming  manners  as  for  his  excellence  in 
scholarship.  He  enjoyed  the  respect  of  his  class, 
and  was  regarded  by  all  who  knew  him  as  an  ex- 
emplary young  man. 

"He  was  studious  in  his  habits  and  scrupulous 
in  the  discharge  of  his  duties,  kind  and  obliging, 
and  always  ready  to  bestow  favors.  This  he 
often  did  by  way  of  aiding  the  inefficient  of  his  class 
in  acquiring  their  lessons,  and  in  writing  the  es- 
says required  of  them  as  class  exercises.  H^  was  a 
deep  thinker,  and  acknowledged  to  be  the  best  lit- 
erary writer  in  his  class.  He  never  indulged  in 
sports,  or  frolics,  so  common  among  college  stu- 
dents, but,  in  whatever  he  did  or  said,  he  always 
observed  the  proprieties  of  life.  In  matters  of 
serious  import  he  was  considerate,  and  in  his  re- 
ligious observances,  reverent  and  sincere. 

"Yet  he  appreciated  humor  and  witticism,  loved 
to  hear  and  tell  anecdotes,  and  enjoyed  a  hearty 
laugh.  He  was  quick  in  his  perceptions,  logical 
in  his  conclusions,  and  could  make  a  fine  point  and 
see  a  fine  point  without  spectacles.  In  the  recita- 
tion-room he  often  put  questions,  arising  out  of 
our  lessons,  to  the  learned  professor,  which  per- 
plexed him,  and  then  would  answer  the  questions 
himself  with  becoming  deference. 

"In  his  course  of  reading,  while  in  college,  he 


16  MABK  HOPKIXS. 

manifested  little  or  no  relish  for  novels,  but  seemed 
to  prefer  standard  authors  in  literature  and  science. 
He  soon  evinced  a  decided  love  for  the  study  of 
metaphysics,  and  read  all  the  books  on  that  sub- 
ject which  he  could  find  in  the  college  library,  and 
took  great  pleasure  in  discussing  the  different  the- 
ories advanced  by  different  authors. 

"I  well  remember  that  on  one  occasion,  during 
our  Senior  year,  he  read  before  the  class  in  the 
presence  of  the  professor  an  essay  on  a  metaphy- 
sical subject.  About  half  the  essay  was  original, 
and  the  other  liaK  copied  from  the  distinguished 
Scotch  author.  Dr.  Reid.  Hopkins  had  placed 
quotation  marks  on  what  was  original,  but  omitted 
to  credit  Eeid.  The  learned  professor  who  had 
the  class  in  charge,  in  criticising  the  essa}",  pro- 
nounced the  quotation  all  right,  but  cut  and  scored 
Dr.  Reid  unmercifidly.  Hopkins  said  nothing, 
but  doubtless  'laughed  in  his  sleeve.' 

"He  soon  afterwards  confided  to  me  the  finesse 
he  had  practiced  on  the  professor,  with  the  injunc- 
tion to  keep  it  a  secret,  lest  it  might  come  to  the 
ears  of  the  professor  and  wound  his  feelings.  I 
doubt  if  he  ever  spoke  of  it  to  any  one  else.  I 
kept  the  secret  for  more  than  forty  years,  and  then 
disclosed  it,  for  the  first  time,  in  a  speech  which 
I  made  at  the  Commencement  dinner,  in  1871, 
when  Hopkins  was  President  of  the  College  and 
presided  at  the  table.  The  anecdote  was  received 
with  prolonged  applause. 

"At  graduation  Hopkins  received  the  appoint- 


THE  EARLY   YEARS.  17 

ment  of  valedictorian,  — an  honor  justly  bestowed 
and  heartily  approved  by  every  member  of  the 
class.  His  valedictory  was  pronounced  a  literary 
gem,  and  was  generally  admired  not  only  for  its 
beauty  of  language,  but  for  its  elevation  of  thought. 
In  a  conversation  with  him  nearly  fifty  years  after- 
wards, I  happened  to  remark  that  I  was  greatly 
surprised  that  the  only  dullard  of  our  class,  in  his 
graduating  oration,  had  manifested  a  degree  of 
ability  and  talent  which  exceeded  the  expectation 
of  everybody  who  knew  him,  and  that  I  was  unable 
to  account  for  it.  'Well,'  said  Hopkins,  'per- 
haps I  may  —  now  the  fellow  is  dead  —  explain  it. 
The  truth  is,  I  wrote  the  oration  for  him. ' 

"The  golden  threads  which  were  wrought  into 
the  texture  of  Hopkins's  college  life  seem  to  have 
grown  brighter  as  he  grew  into  manhood.  They 
were  the  elements  of  his  character,  —  a  character 
that  is  based  on  the  principles  of  a  true  Christian 
philosophy.  The  college  that  educated  him  did 
itself  honor  in  bestowing  upon  him  its  presidency. 
I  regard  it  as  an  honor  to  have  been  one  of  his  col- 
lege classmates." 

One  gets  a  hint  of  how  fully  he  understood  him- 
self in  the  remark  made  to  a  college  classmate  who 
complained  of  the  difficulty  of  the  Greek  lessons : 
"They  are  easy.  I  do  not  know  enough  of  Greek 
to  make  them  hard." 

The  health  of  the  undergraduate  Hopkins  was 
the  source  of  some  solicitude  to  himself  and  his 
friends.     He  was    absent  from    college  for    some 


18  MABK  HOPKINS. 

weeks  at  one  point  in  his  course,  seeking  vigor, 
and  then  made  so  deep  a  study  of  the  claims  of 
Christianity  that  the  questions  of  its  origin  and 
value  were  for  him  answered.  He  settled  these 
questions  not  mainly  on  the  grounds  of  external 
evidence,  certainly  not  on  such  external  evidence 
as  would  be  necessary  to-day  to  overcome  doubt 
based  on  external  considerations,  but  on  that  in- 
ternal evidence  which  in  every  age  is  the  true  sat- 
isfaction of  the  sold  that  hungers  and  thirsts  after 
righteousness.  For  him  "the  life  of  Christ  and 
his  deatli  and  resurrection,  his  whole  being  on 
earth  and  in  heaven,  as  revealed  to  us  in  the  New 
Testament  —  this  was  an  all  sufficient  self -substan- 
tiating evidence  and  exposition  of  Christianity  — 
the  source  of  its  vitality  and  the  secret  of  its 
power."  ^  There  were  other  evidences  for  his  mind, 
as  was  proved  later,  but  this  was  enough.  From 
that  time  his  faith  in  the  supernatural,  regenerating 
power  of  Christ  never  wavered.  There  is  some- 
thing very  significant  even  on  the  intellectual  side 
in  this  examination  and  decision.  At  the  age  of 
twenty  his  hold  on  the  profound  principles  that  un- 
derlie Christianity  was  so  firm  that  the  long,  deep 
thought  of  his  later  life  only  strengthened  that 
hold.  His  views  underwent  modifications  as  to 
certain  doctrines  and  relations,  but  the  grounds  on 
which  he  first  accepted  Christ  as  a  Eedeemer  were 
unchanged,   and   amply   sufficient  through  all  his 

1  Catholic  Thoughts  on  The  Bible  and  Theology.    Frederick  Myers, 
p.  262. 


THE  EAliLY   YEARS.  19 

thoughtful  career.  It  was  the  eternal  truth  he  laid 
hold  of,  not  the  temporary  props  of  varying'  scholar- 
ship. And  because  it  was  the  eternal  truth,  ever 
young  and  ever  new,  his  inspiration  as  a  Christian 
teacher  had  in  it  an  uplifting,  increasing  power 
"that  grew  brighter  and  brighter  unto  the  perfect 
day." 

After  leaving  college  he  entered  the  Medical 
School  at  Pittsfield,  but  taught  a  part  of  the  year 
in  Stockbridge. 


THE  PROFESSOR. 


■'  What  delights  can  equal  those 
That  stir  the  spirit's  inner  deeps, 
When  one  that  loves,  but  knows  not,  reaps 
A  truth  from  one  that  loves  and  knows  ?  " 

Tennyson,  In  Memoriam. 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE    PROFESSOR. 

The  choice  of  the  medical  profession  may  seem 
strange  to  those  who  knew  Dr.  Hopkins  in  the  full 
tide  of  his  career  as  a  philosopher  and  theologian. 
He  was  so  eminent  a  master  in  these  fields  that  a 
consciousness  of  fitness  for  somethino-  else  seems 
singular.  He  was  not  a  mathematician,  but  for 
the  other  subjects  of  the  college  course  he  seemed 
to  have  much  more  than  average  abilities.  He  was 
probably  graduated  with  far  better  qualifications 
for  any  career  not  involving  advanced  mathematics 
than  any  member  of  his  class.  And  the  lack  of 
mathematical  enthusiasm  may  have  been  owing  to 
poor  instruction  before  he  entered  college.  Very 
possibly  the  flourishing  condition  of  the  school  at 
Pittsfield  was  one  influence  that  led  him  into  med- 
icine. He  must  have  known  a  good  deal  of  the 
school  through  some  of  the  students,  and  may  have 
caught  the  desire  for  this  study  from  their  enthu- 
siasm. But  whatever  may  have  been  the  motives 
that  led  him,  it  is  plain  now  that  the  training  de- 
rived from  his  studies  for  the  profession  of  a  phy- 
sician became  of  the  greatest  use  to  him  in  his  later 
life-work.  It  was  the  guidance  of  the  higher  Hand 
that  was  preparing  him  for  a  larger  career. 


24  MARK  HOPKINS. 

Although,  as  has  been  said,  he  settled  for  him- 
self the  validity  of  the  claims  of  Christ  to  his  al- 
legiance before  graduation  from  college,  he  did  not 
make  a  public  profession  of  that  allegiance  until 
1826.  The  question  of  becoming  a  minister  of 
the  gospel  was  probably  not  very  seriously  consid- 
ered, when  he  entered  the  medical  school.  The 
other  profession  attracted  him  strongly.  In  1825 
he  became  a  tutor  in  the  college.  For  two  jesirs 
he  filled  that  position  acceptably.  It  was  a  very 
different  position  from  a  tutorship  to-day.  There 
were  besides  the  president,  Dr.  Griffin,  who  taught 
theology  and  philosophy  and  rhetoric,  but  two  pro- 
fessors in  the  college.  These  were  Chester  Dewey, 
who  taught  mathematics  and  natural  philosophy, 
and  Ebenezer  Kellogg,  who  taught  Latin  and 
Greek.  Whatever  subjects  laid  down  in  the  curri- 
culum these  three  men  did  not  teach,  or  whatever 
parts  of  the  subjects  assigned  to  the  professors  they 
could  not  cover,  fell  to  the  tutors.  Mark  Hopkins 
had  a  classmate,  William  Hervey,  who  was  ap- 
pointed tutor  the  same  year.  The  more  advanced 
subjects  were  given  to  Hopkins. 

There  is  a  record  still  existing  which  testifies 
to  the  high  appreciation  of  his  first  year's  services 
by  the  class  then  finishing  the  Junior  year.  This 
class  was  graduated  in  1 827,  and  though  numbering 
but  thirty,  twenty -three  of  its  members  entered  the 
Christian  ministry. 

The  paper  is  addressed  to  Mr.  Tutor  Hopkins, 
and  bears  date  September  4,  1826.     The  college 


THE  PROFESSOR.  25 

year    ended  at    that  period    early   in    September. 
The  paper  is  as  follows :  — 

Dear  Sir,  —  Tlie  Junior  class,  fully  sensible  of  their 
obUgations  to  you  for  your  exertions  in  their  behalf,  both 
as  it  respects  their  intellectual  and  moral  improvement, 
and  cordially  reciprocating  every  sentiment  of  esteem, 
take  this  method  to  exjn-ess  to  you  their  gratitude,  re- 
spect, and  best  wishes. 

The  scenes  of  the  year  which  now  closes  will  ever 
excite  in  us  a  grateful  remembrance  of  your  kindness, 
be  a  source  of  pleasure  during  our  collegiate  course,  and 
unite  our  hearts  to  you,  sir,  in  bonds  of  affection  when 
we  leave  these  academic  walls. 

Signed,  A.  D.  Whep:ler.  \ 

Nathan  Brown,  J  Com. 
B.  Phinney,  ) 

There  can  be  but  one  explanation  of  the  "scenes 
of  the  year."  It  was  a  year  of  great  spiritual  re- 
vival; considering  the  number  wdth  which  the  year 
opened,  eighty-five  in  all,  of  whom  only  forty- 
three  at  the  beginning  of  the  first  term  professed 
faith  in  Christ  as  the  Redeemer,  it  mry  be  doubted 
whether  a  more  thorough  revival  ever  tcok  place  in 
the  college.  When  the  term  ended,  there  were  but 
seventy-four  students  actually  in  attendimce.  Of 
the  thirty-one  who  had  no  personal  devotion  to  the 
Divine  Master  at  the  beginning  of  the  term,  twenty- 
seven,  or  all  but  four,  had  put  themselves  into  an 
attitude  of  allegiance  to  Him.  The  entire  year 
was  one  of  marked  religious  activity.  There  is 
something  at  once  delightful  and  prophetic  in  find- 


26  MABK  HOPKINS. 

ing  a  record  that  gives  to  Tutor  Hopkins  during 
the  first  year  of  his  service  for  the  college  an  hon- 
orable share  in  the  direction  of  the  thought  of  the 
young  men  toward  Him  "in  whom  are  hid  all  the 
treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge." 

From  1825  until  1887  the  prophecy  of  the  first 
term  of  his  labor  was  continually  fulfilled.  There 
was  never  an  hour  during  all  these  years  when  the 
purpose  and  the  expression  of  his  work  was  not  to 
enthrone  Christ  in  the  hearts  of  the  young  men 
committed  to  his  charge.  It  is  easy,  however,  to 
believe  that  the  sense  of  responsibility  awakened 
by  his  position  as  a  tutor  in  the  college  was  quick- 
ening from  the  first.  His  large  nature  responded 
largely  to  these  new  claims,  and,  under  the  influ- 
ence of  that  first  solemn  but  beautiful  year  of  ser- 
vice to  his  Alma  Mater,  on  his  return  home  to 
Stockbridge  in  the  autumn  he  took  his  stand  with 
the  people  of  God,  and  became  a  member  of  the 
church  militant. 

In  the  autumn  of  1826,  Tutor  Hopkins  went  as 
agent  of  the  American  Tract  Society  through  cen- 
tral New  York  on  horseback,  partly  for  his  health 
probably,  and  did  not  return  to  his  duties  as  tutor 
until  after  the  opening  of  the  next  coUege  year.  A 
sentence  in  the  letter  of  a  graduate  referring  to  this 
period,  and  alluding  to  Tutor  Hopkins  as  "leaving 
me  to  the  gentle  sway  of  Tutor  Hervey,"  makes  the 
inference  of  a  delayed  return  unavoidable.  But 
tutorial  duties  were  resumed,  if  somewhat  late,  in  the 
autumn.     The  delicate  health  which  Hopkins  con- 


THE  PROFESSOR.  27 

tended  with  as  student  and  also  as  tutor  will  per- 
haps be  a  surprise  to  those  who  knew  him  in  later 
years.  There  was  something  so  masculine  and  ro- 
bust and  even  majestic  in  certain  respects  in  his 
figure  that  he  was  usually  regarded  as  a  very  vig- 
orous man.  He  had  great  powers  of  endurance, 
but  his  long  and  singularly  useful  life  was  marked 
by  the  most  careful  observance  of  the  laws  of  health, 
and  a  strict  attention  in  all  his  habits  to  the  one 
great  principle  of  his  philosophy  that  all  lower  ac- 
tivities shovdd  be  made  subservient  to  the  higher. 

The  late  E.  W.  B.  Canning,  of  Stockbridge, 
gives,  in  a  letter  received  from  him  a  year  or  two 
since,  a  glimpse  of  the  college  tutor  as  the  teacher 
of  a  Bible-class.     He  says :  — 

"My  first  recollection  of  Dr.  Hopkins  w^as  dur- 
ing the  spring  and  summer  of  1827,  when  he  was 
Sophomore  tutor,  and  I  was  fitting  for  college  at 
the  AYilliamstown  Academy.  I  was  one  of  ten 
or  a  dozen  lads  who  composed  his  Sabbath-school 
class.  Under  his  instruction  I  received  my  first 
vivid  realization  of  the  paramount  truths  of  the 
Bible  and  of  my  personal  responsibility  thereabout. 
He  was  my  ideal  of  what  a  Bible-class  teacher 
should  be.  He  left  in  the  autumn  of  that  year, 
and  the  final  meeting  with  us  was  an  occasion  whose 
memory  of  more  than  sixty  years  is  still  tearful." 

The  tutorship  ended  at  the  close  of  the  college 
year,  1827.  The  master's  oration  was  delivered 
by  the  retiring  tutor.  Its  subject  was  "Mystery." 
It  was  printed  in  the  "  American  Journal  of  Sci- 


28  MARK  HOPKINS. 

ence  and  Arts,"  in  April,  1828,  and  is  the  first 
paper  in  the  vokime  of  "Essays  and  Discourses" 
collected  and  published  in  1847.  It  is  impossible 
to  read  it  without  admiration  of  the  clear,  manly 
march  of  the  thought  and  the  purity  of  the  style, 
characteristics  as  definitely  exhibited  in  this  oration 
as  in  the  maturest  work  of  his  life.  The  conclud- 
ing paragraph  shows  the  reverent  but  philosophic 
attitude  of  the  writer :  — 

"  Of  the  essence  of  mind  or  matter  we  have  not, 
and  perhaps  no  finite  being  can  have,  the  power 
of  forming  an  elementary  conception.  But  aside 
from  this  we  see  from  what  has  been  said,  that  the 
intelligence  and  experience  which  we  may  hope  for 
hereafter  may  enable  us  to  solve  all  those  difficul- 
ties which  we  now  term  the  mysteries  of  Provi- 
dence, to  reduce  every  physical  fact  to  its  general 
law  (consequently  to  behold  the  universe  without 
one  anomaly),  and  to  refer  all  general  laws  imme- 
diately to  the  volition  of  the  Almight}^  That  will 
indeed  be  a  noble  elevation  of  being  to  attain  unto, 
when,  as  clearly  and  as  directly  as  the  rays  of 
light  emanate  from  the  sun,  every  being  and  event 
shall  seem  to  flow  from  the  energies  of  Omnipo- 
tence and  the  depths  of  ineffable  love.  But  though 
all  mystery  may  thus  far  be  removed,  clouds  and 
darkness  must  still  rest  upon  the  existence,  creative 
energ}^,  and  attributes  of  the  Great  Cause  un- 
caused, and  the  darkness  of  '  excessive  bright '  for- 
ever encompass  his  throne." 

In  the  autumn  of  1827  he  resumed  his  medical 


THE  PROFESSOR.  29 

studies,  and  the  next  three  years  were  spent  mainly 
in  their  pursuit,  although  he  taught  a  part  of  the 
time  as  a  means  of  paying  his  expenses.  In  1830 
he  had  completed  his  studies  and  was  preparing 
to  settle  as  a  physician  in  New  York  city,  where 
he  had  studied  for  a  time,  when  the  professorship 
of  Moral  Philosophy  and  Rhetoric  in  his  Alma 
Mater,  which  had  become  vacant  by  the  death  of 
Professor  William  A.  Porter,  was  offered  to  him 
and  accepted. 

The  feeling  was  much  more  general  in  that  early 
period  of  college  education  than  now,  that  a  college 
professor  should  be  a  teacher  not  wholly  in  the  col- 
lege, but  also  in  the  churches.  In  accordance  Avith 
this  feeling.  Professor  Hopkins,  after  three  years 
of  study  of  the  subjects  belonging  to  his  depart- 
ment, to  which  theology  was  closely  related,  was 
licensed  to  preach  in  the  Congregational  churches 
by  the  Berkshire  association,  at  a  meeting  held  at 
Dalton  in  1833. 

He  was  married  on  Christmas  Day,  1832,  to 
Miss  Mary  Hubbell,  of  Williamstown.  This  mar- 
riage was  in  every  way  happy,  and  the  ideal  rela- 
tions of  family  life  may  be  said  to  have  flowed  from 
it.  Through  a  period  of  over  fifty -four  years,  cov- 
ering a  career  of  great  usefulness  and  eminence, 
but  not  unmarked  by  trials  both  of  a  domestic  and 
personal  character,  with  all  his  massive  strength  he 
leaned  in  tenderness  and  trustfulness  uj^on  the  wife 
whom  he  had  chosen.  He  rarely  went  from  home 
unless  accompanied  by  her,  and  in  all   his  varied 


30  MASK  HOPKIXS. 

literary  work,  her  approval  and  sympathy  were  to 
him  the  seal  of  success.  She  was  several  years 
younger  than  he,  and  especially  after  his  form  was 
bent  and  his  whitened  hair  had  become  scanty,  she 
was  now  and  then  when  away  from  home  with  him 
taken  for  a  daughter.  This  always  afforded  him 
pleasure,  and  was  the  occasion  of  happy  repartee. 
Ten  children  were  born  of  this  marriage,  of  whom 
two  died  in  infancy,  and  one,  the  eldest,  Mary 
Louisa,  in  the  developed  powers  of  what  seemed  a 
perfect  womanhood. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-eight,  then,  Mark  Hopkins, 
doctor  of  medicine,  is  professor  of  Moral  Philoso- 
phy and  Rhetoric  in  his  Ahna  Mater.  An  election 
to  this  professorship  nowadays  would  hardly  be 
given  to  one  whose  professional  studies  had  been  in 
another  field.  It  would  be  thought  necessary  that 
the  incmnbent  of  the  chair  in  a  good  college  should 
have  made  deep  studies  in  this  department  both  in 
this  country  and  abroad.  But  education  was  less 
specialized  in  those  days,  and  the  appointee  had 
proved  himseK  a  consummate  teacher.  Not  by  the 
study  of  any  systems  of  pedagogics,  nor  by  any 
methods  that  could  be  formulated  in  minute  rules, 
but  by  sovereign  tact,  by  genial  insight,  by  prac- 
tical wisdom,  by  true  interest  in  each  individual 
pupil,  and  steady  movement  towards  definite  ends, 
his  success  had  already  been  brilliant.  He  never 
was  an  enthusiast  for  pedagogical  science,  though 
he  valued  the  knowledge  of  educational  movements. 
He  would  have  said  with  a  recent  German  that  "  no 


THE  PROFESSOR.  31 

concrete  educational  questions  can  be  solved  in 
terms  of  an  universally  valid  science."  And  that 
the  rules  of  any  system  could  take  the  place  of  that 
fine  tact,  the  want  of  which  often  characterizes  men 
of  great  power,  and  the  absence  of  which  is  never 
known  except  in  the  most  general  way  by  those 
not  possessing  it,  would  have  seemed  to  him  absurd. 
Without  tact,  without  the  coordinating  power  that 
discovers  and  leads  and  wins  and  concentrates  the 
energies  of  the  pupil  to  an  end,  perfect  mastery  of 
subjects  and  tremendous  force  are  of  no  avail.  In- 
deed, transcendent  abilities  without  fine  discern- 
ment and  tact  will  often  present  the  mournful  fig- 
ure of  a  man  who  pipes  at  a  very  high  key  without 
eliciting  a  single  graceful  responsive  step,  and 
whose  discourse  is  practically  and  permanently  the 
"voice  of  one  crying  in  a  wilderness,"  because  no 
one  will  give  heed.  But  Mark  Hopkins,  when 
teaching  lads  in  Richmond  and  in  Stockbridge,  as 
tutor  and  Sunday-school  teacher,  had  awakened 
interest  and  kindled  intellectual  life.  No  one  can 
call  in  question  the  solidity  of  intellectual  powers 
and  equipments  where  such  results  are  attained. 
"Nothing  succeeds  like  success,"  and  the  appoint- 
ment of  young  Hoj^kins  as  professor  was  an  in- 
stance of  decision  where  there  could  have  been  no 
misgiving. 

In  moral  philosophy  the  text -book  used  was  by 
Paley.  After  the  lapse  of  nearly  sixty  years,  one  ^ 
of  the  class  of  1833  recalls  distinctly  the  sharpness 

^  Hon.  Martin  I.  Townsend,  of  Troy. 


32  MARK  HOPKINS. 

with  which  Professor  Hopkins  criticised  the  state- 
ment of  one  author  that  conscience  is  often  "iden- 
tical with  a  man's  habits  and  prejudices."  He 
said,  "If  the  man's  habits  and  prejudices  were  in 
point  of  fact  identical  with  his  conscience,  we  may 
apply  to  the  one  what  is  said  of  the  other.  Now 
how  would  it  sound  to  say  that  a  man's  habits  and 
prejudices  are  'seared  as  with  a  hot  iron  '?  " 

The  pupil  ^  who  gave  us  a  glimpse  of  Tutor  Hop- 
kins as  a  Bible  teacher  presents  fuller  impressions 
of  him  as  a  professor.     He  says :  — 

"In  1830,  I  left  college  for  a  two  years'  interval, 
and  on  my  return  found  him  installed  as  Professor 
of  Moral  Philosophy  and  Rhetoric ;  and  as  the  in- 
creasing imirmities  of  President  Griffin  not  infre- 
quently required  a  substitute  instructor,  our  class, 
during  both  Junior  and  Senior  years,  had  not  only 
the  regular  but  extra  services  of  Dr.  Hopkins, 
which  were  duly  appreciated.  His  eminent  charac- 
teristics as  an  educator  have  been  so  often  and  so 
generally  treated,  as  to  render  it  impertinent  in  me 
to  attempt  more  in  the  same  direction  than  to  re- 
mark that  no  opinion  of  his  army  of  pupils,  oral  or 
written,  however  eulogistic,  can  adequately  portray 
the  actual  man,  the  living  instructor,  in  his  reci- 
tation-room. So  apt  in  illustration,  so  fertile  in 
collateral  resource,  so  ready  on  occasion  with  his 
spice  of  humor,  so  tactful  in  the  ada23tation  of  his 
questions  to  the  calibre  of  his  respondent,  so  ori- 
ginal and  independent  in  his  ideas  of  the  topic  under 

1  E.  W.  B.  Canning-,  of  Stockbridge,  Williams,  1834. 


THE  rROFESSOR.  33 

discussion,  so  skillful  in  drawing  out  the  thoughts 
and  queries  of  liis  pupils,  he  woke  interest  in  the 
sluggish  and  provoked  attention  in  the  thoughtless 
and  indifferent.  Perhaps  all  his  rare  abilities  in 
this  regard  may  be  summed  u})  in  the  expression, 
—  he  made  men  think. 

"Sometimes  he  good-naturedly  crushed  a  cap- 
tious, seK-important,  or  dissentient  student  by  a 
quick  and  timely  turn  of  the  remarks  of  the  ol)jec- 
tor.      For  example,   Dr.   Hopkins,    one  Saturday 
forenoon,  took  the  president's  place  at  the  recita- 
tion in  Vincent's  Catechism,  usually  regarded  as 
the  dustiest  lesson  of  the  curriculum;  but  whose 
dry  bones  Dr.  Hopkins  clothed  with  life,  warmth, 
and  vigor.      He    was    expounding  the  'exceeding 
l)readth  '  of  the  Fifth  Commandment,  —  its  corre- 
lated grasp  of  the  care  and  authority  over  inmates 
of  public  institutions  and  schools.     A  bright  but 
erratic  student,  who  had  a  recalcitrant  propensity 
toward  the  college  Faculty,   and  had  made  them 
great  trouble,  took  occasion  to  sneer  at  the  latitude 
claimed  in  the  premises,  and  scouted  the  idea  of 
such  extension  of  parental  authority.     The  profes- 
sor sat,  a  smiling  listener,  watching  a  weak  spot  in 
the  objector's   armor  for  an  effective  thrust.      It 
came  when  an  expression  of  the  speaker  made  it  per- 
fectly apt  to  interrupt  him  with  this  inference: 
'Hence  we  see  that  a  father  who  has  an  unruly  son 
whom  he  knows  not  w^hat  else  to  do  with  is  sure 
to  send  him  to  Williams  College.'     The  critic  sub- 
sided amid  a  roar  of  laughter  from  his  classmates, 


34  MARK  HOPKINS. 

and  his  subsequent  ventures  in  the  line  of  criticism 
were  few. 

"As  regards  Professor  Hopkins's  influence  in 
the  government  of  college,  it  seems  to  me  to  have 
been  eminently  one  of  affection  rather  than  of  au- 
thority, and  that  respect  for  his  lovable  qualities, 
coupled  with  his  mental  ability,  secured  ahnost  uni- 
versal obedience.  Indeed,  perhaps  he  never  ap- 
peared at  less  advantage  than  in  the  management 
of  a  fractious,  incorrigible  pupil,  utterly  unap- 
proachable by  moral  suasion.  Punishment  was 
truly  with  him  'a  strange  work,'  and  seemed  to  cost 
the  inflictor  more  than  the  recipient.  But  rare  was 
the  instance  where  his  quiet  influence  and  paternal 
counsel  proved  unavailing." 

Rev.  William  E.  Dixon,  writing  to  President 
Hopkins  from  Enfield,  Connecticut,  in  1868,  in 
acknowledgment  of  some  kincbiess,  and  referring  to 
his  college  life,  alludes  to  his  dealing  with  students. 
Mr.  Dixon  was  graduated  in  1833,  and  was  also  a 
pupil  of  Professor  Hopkins. 

"Always  when  I  was  in  college,  I  observed  the 
great  wisdom  and  tact  with  which  you  got  along 
with  the  students,  not  pressing  upon  them  with 
severity  to  kindle  anger,  but  inciting  and  ruling 
them  ...  by  reason,  kindness,  and  love." 

More  than  sixty  years  have  elapsed  since  the 
election  to  the  chair  of  Moral  Philosophy.  Natu- 
rally little  testimony  to  the  character  of  the  teach- 
ing given  during  the  six  years  that  Dr.  Hopkins 
held  the  professorship  can  be  received  from  pupils 


THE  PROFESSOR.  35 

of  that  period.  All  the  testimony  that  can  be  se- 
cured confirms  the  sagacity  of  the  appointment  and 
the  wisdom  of  the  acceptance.  Whatever  great 
things  the  life  of  a  physician  might  have  seemed 
to  promise  and  might  have  accomplished,  a  careful 
examination  of  the  actual  career  and  the  results 
leaves  no  doubt  that  when  he  selected  the  life  of  a 
teacher,  he  chose  that  for  which  he  was  by  nature 
preeminently  fitted,  and  that  to  which  God  surely 
called  him. 


THE  COLLEGE. 


"  Nature  constitutes  throug-hout  one  intellectual  organism :  hu- 
manity one  moral  organism ;  and  as  God  is  the  informing  thought 
of  the  one,  so  is  He  the  spiritual  authority  of  the  other.  In  rec- 
ognition of  the  former,  we  raise  the  University :  as  symbol  of  the 
other,  we  dedicate  the  Church :  neither  of  which  fulfills  its  essen- 
tial idea,  till  it  places  us  at  an  altitude  whence  the  whole  domain 
of  knowledge  on  the  one  hand,  of  duty  on  the  other,  can  be  sur- 
veyed in  its  relations,  and  seen  suffused  with  the  Divine  and 
blending  light."  — Jasies  Martineau,  A  Study  of  Religion. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE    COLLEGE. 

By  the  acceptance  of  the  professorship  in  1830, 
Mark  Hoj^kins  identified  himself  permanently  with 
Williams  College,  His  connection,  begun  as  a 
stndent  in  1821,  continued  with  two  intermissions, 
one  of  one  year  immediately  after  graduation,  and 
one  of  three  years  after  the  exj)iration  of  his  tutor- 
ship in  1827,  until  his  death  in  1887.  Of  these 
sixty-six  years,  sixty-two  were  years  of  closest  al- 
liance with  the  college,  and  for  thirty-six  of  the 
sixty-two  he  had  the  chief  responsibility  before  the 
world  for  the  direction  of  its  affairs.  A  connection 
so  close,  so  vital,  and  so  enduring  cannot  be  shown 
for  any  other  American  educator.  There  is  some- 
thing wonderful  in  the  simple  physical  endurance 
it  suo'o'ests.  When  it  is  remembered  that  he  left 
college  for  a  while  on  accoimt  of  delicate  health, 
and  that  in  spite  of  his  massive  frame  and  majestic 
figure  he  was  never  a  robust  man,  but  was  always 
very  dependent  on  sleep,  the  length  of  service  is 
still  more  surprising. 

It  w^as  the  New  Eno'land  coUeo'e  to  which  this 
long  and  enduring  life  was  devoted,  and  no  educa- 
tor, in  this  or  any  of  the  past  generations,  can  be 


40  MABK  HOFKIXS. 

said  to  be  more  fully  identified  with  this  peculiar 
outgrowth  of  Puritan  ideas  than  Dr.  Hopkins. 

If  the  original  aim  of  the  New  England  college, 
as  indicated  by  the  motto  of  Harvard,  foimded  in 
1636,  Christo  et  Eccleslce^  and  by  the  character 
of  the  instruction  given  for  many  decades,  was 
largely  to  train  men  for  the  ministry,  that  idea  was 
already  growing  wider,  when  Yale  was  chartered 
in  1701.  Yale  was  to  be  a  "school  wherein  youth 
may  be  instructed  in  the  arts  and  sciences,  who, 
through  the  blessing  of  Almighty  God,  may  be 
fitted  for  public  employment  both  in  church  and 
civil  state."  But  when  Yale  was  founded,  her 
trustees  were  all  ministers  of  the  gospel,  and  no 
layman  was  admitted  to  the  corporation  until  1792, 
when  a  grant  of  money  from  the  State  of  Connect- 
icut opened  the  doors  of  the  corporation  to  the 
"Governor,  Lieutenant-Governor,  and  six  senior 
assistants  in  the  Council  of  the  State."  In  1819 
the  words  "six  senior  assistants  in  council "  w^ere 
chanoed  to  "the  six  senior  senators." 

Williams  College  was  chartered  in  1793,  and  the 
majority  of  her  trustees  were  Yale  graduates.  The 
educated  men  in  New^  England  had  come  to  see  by 
the  great  events  of  the  Revolution,  and  by  the  his- 
tory of  the  Confederation,  and  in  the  conventions 
and  debates  that  led  to  the  adoption  of  the  present 
federal  constitution,  that  college-bred  men  were  of 
immense  importance  to  the  state,  and  that  the  ser- 
vices that  could  be  rendered  by  the  college  to  the 
other  learned  professions  w^ere  not   less   valuable 


THE  COLLEGE.  41 

than  those  given  to  the  ministry.  It  seemed  wise 
to  the  first  trustees  of  Williams  that  this  wider  con- 
nection with  the  state  should  be  fully  recognized. 
Of  the  thirteen  trustees  named  in  the  charter,  nine 
were  laymen,  and  when,  the  next  year,  in  accord- 
ance with  a  provision  of  the  charter,  three  addi»- 
tional  trustees  were  elected,  one  of  these  was  a  lay- 
man ;  so  that  when  the  full  number  of  trustees  had 
been  chosen,  the  clergymen  on  the  board  were  but 
six  out  of  sixteen.  As  the  founder,  Ephraim  Wil- 
liams, was  a  soldier,  and  the  money  which  he  left  was 
for  the  establislunent  of  a  "free  school,"  it  may  have 
been  thought  that  to  give  laymen  a  preponderance 
in  the  corporation  would  be  more  in  accordance  with 
his  purpose.  Out  of  this  "  free  school  "of  1790 
grew  the  college,  and  this  connection  doubtless 
helped  to  strengthen  the  lay  element,  as  the  original 
trustees  were  continued  in  office.  The  New  Eng- 
land colleges  at  the  beginning  of  this  century  were 
far  more  alike  than  they  are  to-day.  They  were 
all  colleges.  Divinity  students  w^ere  trained  by 
settled  clergymen.  The  Andover  school  was  not 
founded  until  1807.  Law  students  were  trained 
in  the  office  of  eminent  lawyers.  The  medical 
were  the  first  professional  schools  under  the  shelter 
of  the  colleges,  the  school  at  Harvard  dating  from 
about  1783,  and  the  school  at  Yale  from  1813.  It 
seemed  desirable  to  have  this  connection  both  for 
the  college  and  the  professional  school,  and  even 
Williams  College  had,  for  a  period,  an  organic  re- 
lation with  the  medical  school  in  Pittsfield.     The 


42  MAPiK  HOPKINS. 

growth  of  professional  schools  about  the  college  has 
been  mostly,  and  the  development  of  the  college 
into  the  university  wholly,  within  this  century. 
Sixty  years  ago,  the  number  of  professors  in  the 
largest  colleges  was  small,  and  instruction  was  given 
more  largely  by  tutors  than  at  present.  The  occa- 
sion for  the  establishment  of  nearly  every  college 
founded  in  New  England  previous  to  1820,  except 
Harvard,  was  that  a  large  and  prosj^erous  region 
was  without  the  privileges  of  higher  education,  and 
the  journey  to  a  college  a  hundred  miles  away  was 
costly  and  difficidt.  All  the  New  England  colleges 
of  the  last  century  except  Brown  University, 
founded  as  Ehode  Island  College,  belonged  origi- 
nally to  the  Puritans,  and  conformed  to  the  same 
general  plan,  and  were  regarded  with  interest  and 
affection  by  the  great  body  of  the  New  England 
people. 

That  traveling  should  become  so  easy  and  cheap ; 
that  one  central  college  in  New  England  might  be 
reached  in  less  than  one  day  from  the  extremities 
even  of  new  Maine,  before  the  century  ended,  was 
not  even  imagined  in  1820.  The  competition  of 
to-day  was  still  farther  from  the  early  conception. 
The  first  trustees  of  Yale  were  Harvard  graduates. 
A  majority  of  the  first  trustees  of  Williams,  as  has 
been  stated,  were  Yale  graduates,  and  the  territory 
between  Williams  and  Yale,  a  hundred  and  twelve 
miles  to  the  south,  seems  by  the  selection  of  one  of 
the  first  trustees  for  Williams  from  Norfolk,  Con- 
necticut, to  have  been  equally  and  amicably  di\aded. 


THE  COLLEGE.  43 

The  denominational  development  of  colleges  was 
beo-innino'  to  make  itself  felt,  and   besides  Rhode 
Island  College,  several  others,  not  belonging  to  the 
Conoreo-ationalists,  had  been  founded  in  New  Eng- 
land  when  Mark  Hopkins  was  elected  professor, 
and  one  was  chartered   the  following  year.     The 
earliest  form  of    competition  was  denominational 
rivaby,  but  these  new  colleges  followed  the  same 
general  plan  as  the  earlier.     A  president,  two  or 
three  professors,  and  two  or  three  or  more  tutors 
constituted  the  teaching  body.     The  classes  were 
not  large,   those  in  Harvard  graduating  between 
1830  and  1840  averaging  about  fifty  each,  those  in 
Williams  and  Brown  during  the  same  period  about 
twenty-five,    and   those    in   Yale  probably  nearer 
eighty.      The  religious  traditions  of   the  colleges 
were  still  potent,  and  the  required  religious  services 
were  frequent  and  not  always  attractive.     Even  in 
those  colleges  wliere,  as  in  Williams,  a  large  num- 
ber of  trustees  were  laymen,  it  was  felt,  though  not 
always  prescribed,  that  it  would  be  better  that  the 
president  should  be  a  clergyman.     The  clerical  in- 
fluence w^as  for  that  reason  alone  very  large  in  the 
board  of  trustees  in  most  of  the  colleges.     More 
frequently  the  professors  also  were  clergymen,  as 
the  dominion  that  belonged  to  that  profession,  still 
somewhat  marked,  seemed  to  suit  well  the  profes- 
sor's position.     The  students  themselves  were  very 
largely  from  religious  families,  and  though,  at  the 
close  of  the  last  century,  skepticism  was  rife  in  the 
coUeges,  in  many  of  them  the  tide  had  turned,  and 


44  MAEK  HOPKINS. 

long  before  1830  came  in  full  and  strong  with 
faith.  Those  colleges  that  were  favorably  situated 
in  large  cities  or  wealthy  communities  have  of  late 
years  left  behind,  with  their  richness  of  instruction 
and  variety  of  equipments  and  splendid  profes- 
sional schools,  the  old  New  England  college,  but 
that  was  and  still  remains  the  nucleus  and  foun- 
dation of  all  the  new  growth.  Its  power  was  im- 
mense for  good,  and  for  the  safe  and  honorable  de- 
velopment of  our  country  the  Puritans  opened  no 
richer  fountain  than  the  New  England  college. 
Such  presidents  as  Woolsey  at  Yale,  Wayland  at 
Brown  University,  and  Hopkins  at  Williams ;  such 
professors  as  Hadley  at  Yale,  honored  in  Europe 
for  his  scholarship  and  yet  condescending  to  teach 
Freslmien  the  dialect  of  Homer  with  unfailing  pa- 
tience, or  Peabody  at  Harvard,  winning  the  respect 
and  affection  of  all  the  young  men  and  inspiring 
them  with  a  new  conception  of  learning  devoted  to 
Christ,  or  as  Diman  at  Brown,  kindling  enthusi- 
asm for  academic  culture,  but  making  that  always 
tributary  to  service,  —  these  are  types  of  men  not 
without  representatives  in  nearly  every  general 
catalogue,  all  the  products  of  the  old-fashioned  col- 
lege, and  handing  down  unpolluted  the  precious  in- 
fluences which  quickened  them.  The  early  college 
had  small  equipments,  but  the  narrow  and  plain 
rooms  in  which  men  were  drilled  and  taught  were 
large  enough  for  great  kindlings  and  for  deep  and 
permanent  impressions.  It  is  easy  for  the  college 
graduate  of  fifty  years  ago  to  find  in  most  of  the 


THE  COLLEGE.  45 

colleges  an  enormous  improvement  in  technical  in- 
struction, but  while  he  is  amazed  at  the  fine  appli- 
ances and  at  the  dexterity  with  which  the  3^oung 
men  handle  them,  he  has  no  accurate  instrument  to 
test  the  breadth  and  power  of  personal  inspiration 
which  quickened  him  in  his  own  college  years.  A 
few  years  since,  a  discussion  arose  in  an  assembly 
of  educated  men  on  the  decline  of  the  personal 
influence  of  the  teachers  in  colleoes.  There  was 
not  an  agreement  that  this  personal  influence  had 
declined.  One  distinguished  educator  held  that 
"there  is  no  personal  influence  except  that  of  gen- 
ius, and  that  there  is  more  genius  than  there  used 
to  be."  Some  supposed  that  there  is  a  personal 
influence  from  learning  when  guided  by  love ;  from 
sweetness  of  nature  when  inspired  by  faith;  from 
robust  manhood  when  led  to  condescension ;  from 
a  character  synnnetrical  and  true,  even  if  genius 
have  not  touched  the  mind  with  its  brilliant  and 
fascinating  insight.  All  these  sources  of  personal 
influence  may  not  be  in  one  teacher,  but  the  scorn 
of  meanness,  and  the  love  of  truth,  and  delight  in 
the  progress  of  one's  pupils,  may  be  felt  in  varying 
proportions  from  different  teachers.  They  will  be 
felt  as  a  quickening  and  formative  power,  when- 
ever the  relations  between  teacher  and  pupil  cease 
to  be  formal;  and  behind  the  lucid  exposition, 
or  the  cogent  argument,  or  the  purely  intellectual 
attitude,  the  warm  glow  of  right  affections  is  per- 
ceived, and  the  instruction  is  permeated  with  the 
subtle  influence  of  a  high  ideal  in  life  as  well  as  in 
thought. 


46  MASK  HOPKINS. 

Without  doubt,  wlieu  the  training  is  liberal, 
rather  than  technical ;  when  it  tends  to  the  enlarge- 
ment and  expansion  of  the  entire  man,  to  the  har- 
monious use  of  all  the  powers ;  when  it  is  less  for 
definite  utilities  and  more  for  the  enjoyment  that 
will  underlie  the  entire  career,  the  moral  and  spir- 
itual resources  of  the  teacher  have  fuller  play.  The 
college  has  stood  for  liberal  training.  That  w^as 
the  aim  and  the  result  in  the  days  when  the  col- 
lege was  simply  a  collection  of  young  men  with 
their  teachers,  and  the  range  of  studies  w^as  narrow 
and  the  requirements  not  severe.  That  has  been 
the  aim  until  w  ithin  the  last  twenty  years.  Though 
a  larger  infusion  of  technical  and  special  training 
has  come  into  the  college  curriculum  than  for- 
merly, it  still  remains  true  that  concentration,  gen- 
eral power,  ability  to  enjoy  society  and  the  thoughts 
of  God,  manliness,  and  gentlemanliness  are  as- 
smned  to  be  the  ends  of  the  college. 

For  these  ends  Dr.  Hopkins  loved  the  college. 
He  believed  that  they  were  realized  by  the  New 
England  colleges  when  he  became  connected  wdth 
Williams,  and  to  their  more  perfect  realization 
he  gladly  devoted  his  life.  He  felt  deeply  the 
dangers  that  beset  young  men  in  the  freedom 
which  the  college  involves.  This  was  increased 
much  from  the  changes  in  social  conditions  dur- 
ing his  life.  But  this  very  freedom  has  its  ad- 
vantages. The  transmission  of  enthusiasms  from 
one  to  another ;  the  self-reliance  that  is  often  de- 
veloped ;  the  watchfulness  exercised  by  comj^anions 


THE  COLLEGE.  47 

over  one  another;  the  interplay  of  i^enerous  emu- 
lations, —  these  results  are  greatly  fostered  by  the 
freedom  of  college  life.  Larger  learning  could  un- 
doubtedly have  been  secured  in  many  cases  by  the 
system  of  private  tuition.  The  very  relations  of 
college  students  have  been  a  preparation  for  citi- 
zenship, and  the  college  training  has  given  force 
and  foresio-ht  and  wisdom  to  the  leaders  in  the  best 
movements  of  our  modern  period.  It  has  given 
these  qualities  sometimes  where  the  attainments  in 
knowledge  were  not  great,  and  has  been  a  perpet- 
ual reinforcement  of  all  that  is  good  and  true  in 
official  life. 

Dr.  Hopkins  was  not  a  theorist  in  education. 
He  worked  with  the  material  that  was  given  him, 
and  studied  patiently  to  bring  the  largest  results  out 
of  that  material.  He  considered  questions  of  edu- 
cation with  care,  and  he  loved  freedom  too  ardently 
to  believe  that  all  teachers  can  use  the  same 
method.  He  thought  that  the  good  teacher  is  not 
exactly  "born,"  but  certainly  is  not  "made,"  unless 
he  is  "born"  first.  His  pupils  were  always  per- 
sons, and  not  simply  a  group  or  a  class.  While 
he  held  firmly  to  the  class  system,  and  to  the  great 
advantage  for  the  community  of  the  old-fashioned 
liberal  training,  he  was  never  absolutely  certain 
that  so  much  Latin,  or  so  much  Greek,  or  so  much 
mathematics  was  the  best  management  for  all 
classes. 

But  he  never  adopted  the  modern  notion  that 
the  immature   student  can  wisely    decide    all  the 


48  MABK  HOPKINS. 

studies  that  will  be  most  advantageous  for  his 
training. 

"To  decide  this  point,  including  the  order  of  the 
studies  as  they  are  related  to  each  other  and  to  the 
opening  powers  of  the  student,  requires  wide  in- 
formation and  sound  judgment ;  and  that  the  college 
should  decide  it  seems  to  me  due  to  itself  and  to 
the  young  men  who  come  to  it." 

These  words  are  a  part  of  the  final  statement 
which  he  made  of  his  views  on  education  in  the  ad- 
dress commemorative  of  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of 
his  election  as  president.  And  it  should  be  kept 
in  mind  that  he  was  far  more  charitable  to  new 
ideas  in  his  last  than  his  earliest  years.  He  grew 
progressive  as  he  grew  old,  but  on  this  point  he 
did  not  waver.  He  would  not  admit  that  a  wide 
range  of  possible  studies  is  essential  to  a  univer- 
sity.    His  strong  words  are :  — 

"  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  by  giving  a  wide 
range  of  option  in  undergraduate  studies  a  college 
approximates  a  university.  It  rather  approximates 
a  high-school,  and  may  virtually  become  one." 

With  him  it  was  a  question  of  degree,  for  he 
was  thoroughly  friendly  to  the  introduction  of  cer- 
tain elective  branches  in  "the  later  part  of  the 
course."  Not  one  of  the  board  of  trustees,  on  which 
he  served  from  his  election  as  president  in  183G 
until  his  death  in  1887,  more  cordially  approved  the 
introduction  of  certain  elective  studies  into  the 
Junior  year,  which  took  place  in  Williams  at  the 
beginning  of  the  academical  year  in  188G.     Elective 


THE  COLLEGE.  49 

studies  had  been  added  to  the  required  work  in  1882, 
but  did  not  reduce  the  aggregate  of  such  work. 
The  test  case  was  in  1886,  when  it  was  proposed  to 
change  three  eighths  of  the  required  work  of  the 
Junior  year  to  elective,  and  that  change  he  wholly 
approved.  That  the  college  authorities  should  de- 
cide all  the  studies  and  their  order,  and  the  amount 
of  time  to  be  given  to  each  subject  in  at  least  the 
first  two  and  to  a  large  degree  in  the  last  two 
years,  and  should  never  omit  the  study  of  philoso- 
phy and  morals,  was  a  strong  conviction  with  him. 
His  questioning  attitude  with  regard  to  the  pro- 
portion of  time  to  be  given,  for  instance,  to  the 
ancient  languages  early  bore  fruit  in  the  introduc- 
tion of  other  studies  into  the  Sophomore  year.  He 
felt  the  immense  advantao;e  of  interestino^  students 
in  a  country  college  in  nature,  and  both  natural 
history  and  natural  science  have  now  in  Williams 
College  time  that  in  many  other  institutions,  hold- 
ing to  a  fixed  curriculum,  is  given  to  the  ancient 
languages,  though  for  this  substitution  an  offset 
is  found  in  the  electives  offered  later  in  the  clas- 
sics. His  own  enjoyment  of  the  studies  of  anat- 
omy and  physiology  had  opened  his  mind  to  the 
value  of  the  sciences.  He  perceived  early  the  very 
great  advantages  that  arise  from  an  interest  in  and 
a  knowledge  of  the  natural  world  in  this  scientific 
and  practical  age.  Without  hesitation  he  woidd 
say  with  Herbert  Spencer :  "To  prepare  for  com- 
plete living  is  the  function  which  education  has  to 
discharge ;  and  the  only  rational  mode  of  judging 


60  MARK  HOPKINS. 

of  any  educational  course  is  to  judge  in  what  degree 
it  discharges  such  function." 

His  chosen  arrangement  of  studies  in  the  Senior 
year  of  the  course,  on  which  he  set  high  value,  was 
founded  on  his  conception  of  this  function.  He 
taught  anatomy  and  physiolog}^  partly  as  a  foun- 
dation for  psychology,  but  partly  that  his  pupils 
might  more  fully  understand  the  beauty  and 
symmetry  of  the  structure  in  which  the  human 
mind  is  lodged,  and  might  more  wisely  care  for 
this  structure. 

The  study  of  psychology  followed  upon  this  phy- 
sical study  of  man  in  his  method,  partly  as  intro- 
ductory to  an  examination  of  the  moral  nature,  but 
largely  that  his  students  might  each  understand  his 
own  mind,  and  each  know  how  to  make  the  most  of 
his  endo^\^nents.  Upon  psychology  he  based  the 
study  of  morals,  not  merely  for  theoretical  know- 
ledge, but  that  a  well-regulated  body  and  a  well -un- 
derstood and  well-trained  mind  might  cooperate, 
and  their  activities  issue  in  a  pure  and  loving  life. 
All  these  studies  in  this  order,  resembling  a  pyr- 
amid having  its  broad  foundation  in  the  physi- 
cal, led  up  to  the  recognition  and  reverence  of  God. 
So  long  as  he  taught  natural  theology,  it  was  the 
last  study  of  the  year.  These  studies  were  so 
connected  that  the  dullest  student  saw  the  oneness 
of  the  system.  In  an  important  sense  the  studies 
were  a  system,  and  many  mature  young  men ,  who 
had  not  had  the  preliminary  training  necessary  for 
full  membership  of  a  class,  resorted  to  the  college 


THE  COLLEGE.  51 

for  the  instruction  which  he  gave,  were  admitted  as 
special  students,  and  received  great  enhirgenient 
from  his  teaching.  For  those  who  had  had  the 
thorough  training  of  the  earlier  years,  this  order  of 
studies  was  of  incalculable  profit. 

It  would  be  hard  to  convince  any  one  who  had 
seen  the  great  expansion  and  quickening  of  the  in- 
tellectual and  moral  powers  of  students  under  Dr. 
Hopkins's  training  in  the  Senior  year  in  Williams 
College  that  absolutely  free  choices  of  studies  can 
so  perfectly  prepare  the  average  undergraduate  for 
right  living.  The  Senior  year  under  Dr.  Hopkins 
was  the  old  Senior  year  of  the  New  England  college 
made  harmonious  and  progressive. 

The  colleges  of  New  England  have  been  the  most 
potent  auxiliaries  of  the  Christian  faith.  Nothing 
in  these  colleges  is  more  surprising  to  the  thought- 
ful foreigner  than  the  loyal  devotion  of  their  re- 
sources to  the  honor  of  the  gospel  of  Christ.  For- 
mal religious  services  have  been  less  frequent  of 
late  years,  but  there  is  nothing  of  which  these  col- 
leges are  more  jealous  than  their  reputation  as  re- 
lated to  Christ.  There  is  often  restlessness  under 
the  mention  and  maintenance  of  this  allegiance 
among  some  students;  often  a  tendency  to  rebel 
against  it  appears  among  the  teachers  of  a  great 
university :  but  the  college  representing  what  Yale, 
for  instance,  was  fifty  years  ago,  insists  that  there 
is  no  manhood  comparable  to  Christian  manhood, 
and  no  hope  for  the  redemption  of  a  lost  manhood 
except    in    the  acceptance  of  the  divine  Saviour. 


52  MARK  HOPKINS. 

An   atmosphere   pervaded   by   these   conceptions, 
where  the  teachers,  eminent  for  learning  and  pu- 
rity of  character,  do  all  in  their  power  to  enforce 
these  conceptions,  embraces  the  students  for  four 
years.     The  religious  influence  has  not  been  les- 
sened by  petty  restrictions.     Discussion  has  been 
free,  but   generally  only  the  presentation  of   the 
larofer  doctrines  has  been  favored.     Students  of  all 
denominations  are  welcomed  by  each  college,  and 
the    offensive    enforcement    of    peculiar   tenets    is 
avoided.     There  is  not  in  the  world  another  gift  by 
any  church  to  the  cause  of  Christ  equally  as  great 
and  beneficent  as  the  great  gift  of  Congregation- 
alism, —  the  colleges  of  New  England.     It  may  be 
thought  that  modern  missions  are  an  equally  impor- 
tant contribution,  but  the  missions  came  through 
the  colleges  and  are  the  outgrowth  of  their  thought- 
ful  and  Christian    spirit.     No    student,    however 
skeptical,  can  wholly  escape  the  effect  of  the  living 
enforcement  by  pure  men  of  the  doctrines  of  the 
Gospels.    No  graduate  can  wholly  throw  off  the  in- 
fluence of  these  years.     There  are  students  in  every 
college  who    profess  an  allegiance    to  Christ  that 
does  not  control  their  lives.     There  are  many  young 
men  in  the  colleges  to  whom  these  years  are  years 
of  small  intellectual  labor,  of  easy  enjoyment,  and 
some  to  whom   they  are  years  of    self-indulgence 
and  degradation.     Many  of   fhem  meet  obstacles 
and  do  not  finish  their  course.     Even  to  the  most 
thoughtless  serious  lessons  are  brought   home   by 
the  influences  of   the  college,   and   a   young  man 


THE  COLLEGE.  53 

must  be  very  insensible  wlio  is  not  at  some  point 
of  his  college  life  deeply  impressed  with  the  signifi- 
cance and  scope  of  Christian  character. 

There  has  probably  been  a  decline  in  the  average 
ethical  standards  of  the  students  entering  the  New 
England  colleges.  The  attendance  of  students  of 
foreign  birth,  the  less  thorough  discipline  at  home 
in  religious  things  even  among  American  boys,  con- 
sequent on  the  hurry  and  press  of  modern  business, 
may  affect  somewhat  •  the  material  the  college  has 
to  deal  with.  But  Christian  sentiments  and  tradi- 
tions and  Christian  usages  pervade  the  college  life 
as  visibly  and  really  as  ever,  and  the  efficiency  of 
the  colleges  as  allies  of  the  Christian  faith  has  not 
been  diminished.  It  was  to  this  side  of  the  coUeo-e 
that  Dr.  Hopkins  was  peculiarly  attracted,  and  his 
experience  as  tutor  must  have  made  this  side  pecu- 
liarly promising. 

The  fact  that  the  quickening  of  foreign  missions 
in  this  coimtry  dated  from  a  prayer-meeting  held 
by  Williams  students  under  the  shelter  of  a  hay- 
stack invested  the  college  with  a  unique  and  ro- 
mantic charm.  It  is  no  wonder  that  large  numbers 
of  men  from  many  classes,  under  the  new  inspira- 
tions of  the  opening  century,  went  into  the  service 
of  the  Christian  ministry  and  Christian  missions. 
These  influences  touched  the  large  imagination  of 
the  young  and  gifted  professor,  and  his  mind  was 
fiUed  with  the  conceptions  of  the  great  things  that 
the  college  could  do  for  Christ.  He  was  greatly 
blessed  in  seeing  his  pupils    become  on  all    sides 


54  MARK  HOPKINS. 

friends  and  champions  of  the  Christian  faith. 
There  were  days  when  his  hibor  seemed  fruitless; 
when  the  low  standards  and  lower  living  of  Chris- 
tians in  college  weighed  very  heavily  on  his  heart, 
but  he  steadied  himself  with  the  assurance  that  a 
"thousand  years  are  with  the  Lord  as  one  day," 
and  labored  on. 

The  unique  attractiveness  of  his  brother  Albert, 
who  was  elected  professor  in  the  college  before  his 
own  appointment,  and  who  was  a  profoundly  reli- 
gious man,  and  whose  experience  seemed  to  bring 
back  Old  Testament  traditions  and  combinations, 
made  the  acceptance  of  the  professorship  easy  for 
him;  and  throughout  his  presidency  the  presence 
and  companionship  of  such  a  brother,  perhaps 
more  ardently,  certainly  more  outwardly  devoted 
to  the  encouragement  of  Christian  living  among 
students  than  any  professor  of  whom  I  have  had 
personal  knowledge,  was  an  incalculable  help  and 
blessing.  These  two  men,  the  one  an  Old  Testa- 
ment prophet,  and  the  other  an  expounder  of  the 
relations  between  the  old  and  the  new  covenants, 
a  reasoner  on  the  universal  presence  of  God's  law, 
a  persuasive  advocate  of  the  reasonableness  of  the 
gospel,  stood  together  for  over  forty  years,  and 
gave  to  Williams  College  a  noble  individuality  as 
a  Christian  college.  The  resignation  of  the  pres- 
idency by  Mark  and  the  death  of  Albert  were  al- 
most synchronous.  Those  who  knew  the  untiring 
efforts  of  Professor  Albert  for  the  religious  wel- 
fare of  the  college,  and  the  immense  support  that 


THE  COLLEGE.  55 

these  efforts  gave  to  the  in-esidency  of  his  brother, 
will  not  wonder  that,  when  an  alliance  so  tender 
and  manly,  which  had  endured  for  more  than 
forty  years,  was  threatened  by  the  failing  health  of 
one  membsr,  the  other,  who  had  borne  burdens  of 
colossal  magnitude  for  thirty-six  years  in  conditions 
of  great  depression,  felt  that  he  could  no  longer 
carry  on  the  entire  work.  The  influence  of  these 
two  men  on  the  New  England  and  hence  on  the 
American  college  will  not  be  lost.  Their  brother- 
hood helped  to  maintain  the  distinctively  Christian 
character  of  the  New  England  college.  It  exhib- 
ited the  alliance  of  large  endowments  and  great 
acquisitions  wholly  devoted  to  the  kingdom  of  God. 
In  the  shadow  of  these  lives  no  student  could 
despise  Christianity,  and  no  unbeliever,  however 
aggressive,  could  scoff  at  the  results  in  character 
of  faith. 

When  Mark  Hopkins  accepted  the  professorship, 
he  could  not  foresee  the  brilliant  results  of  his  ca- 
reer. But  the  New  England  college  seemed  to  him 
to  represent  the  noblest  forces  in  his  country,  and 
having  had  some  experience  as  a  teacher,  he  knew 
that  success  was  probable.  By  accepting  the  ap- 
pointment he  made  a  choice  worthy  of  his  large 
endowments  and  his  pure  aspirations.  The  col- 
lege honored  him,  but  he  was  destined  greatly  to 
honor  the  college. 


THE   ADMINISTRATOR. 


"  Endurance  is  the  crowning  quality, 
And  patience  all  the  passion  of  great  hearts : 
These  are  their  stay,  and  when  the  leaden  world 
Sets  its  hard  face  against  their  fateful  thought; 
And  brute  strength  like  a  scornful  conqueror 
Clangs  his  huge  mace  down  in  the  other  scale, 
The  inspired  soul  but  flings  his  patience  in. 
And  slowly  that  outweighs  the  ponderous  globe,  — 
One  faith  against  a  whole  world's  unbelief, 
One  soul  against  the  flesh  of  all  mankind." 

Lowell,  Columbus. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

THE   ADMINISTRATOR. 

The  doctor  of  medicine  had  not  been  suffered  to 
establish  himself  as  physician  when  he  was  ap- 
pointed Professor  of  Moral  Philosophy.  The  pro- 
fessor had  scarcely  lost  the  sense  of  surprise  that 
came  with  his  election,  or  the  feeling  of  novelty 
that  accompanied  his  new  work,  when  another  pro- 
motion came.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Griffin,  who  had  en- 
tered upon  his  duties  as  president  at  a  time  when 
a  grave  crisis  existed,  and  when  the  prospects  of 
the  college  were  very  dark,  and  who  had  put  heroic 
courage  and  patience  and  energy  into  the  colossal 
task  of  building  up  the  college,  began  in  1833  to 
show  signs  of  failing  health.  Notwithstanding  in- 
creasing weakness,  he  continued  to  discharge  his 
duties  until  1836,  when  it  became  evident  that  he 
must  resign  his  office.  There  were  varying  opin- 
ions, as  always  in  such  an  emergency,  as  to  who 
was  best  fitted  to  succeed  him.  Among  the  stu- 
dents there  was  but  one  sentiment.  The  young- 
professor,  who  only  six  years  before  had  completed 
plans  for  the  practice  of  medicine  in  a  great  city, 
but  who  at  the  call  of  his  Alma  Mater  had  re- 
nounced medicine  for   morals,  had  made  so  deep 


60  MABK  HOPKINS. 

an  impression  on  all  his  pupils  that  they  earnestly 
hoped  that  Professor  Mark  Hojikins  might  be- 
come president.  He  was  but  thirty-four  years 
old.  Dr.  Griffin  was  fifty-one  when  elected  presi- 
dent, Dr.  Moore  was  forty-five  when  he  entered 
upon  the  duties  of  ^e  office,  and  President  Fitch, 
the  first  president,  was  thirty-seven.  If  Professor 
Ho23kins  was  only  three  years  yoimger  than  Mr. 
Fitch  when  the  latter  was  elected,  there  was  a 
great  difference  in  the  dignity  of  the  positions  to 
which  the  two  were  called.  Mr.  Fitch  was  elected 
to  nurse  an  academy  into  a  college.  But  the  college 
had  now  an  honorable  history,  an  excellent  stand- 
ing, and  the  certainty  of  a  noble  future.  There  has 
been  with  regard  to  many  things  a  sing*idar  sagacity 
in  the  management  of  Williams  College.  The  con- 
stitution of  its  board  of  trustees  from  the  begin- 
ning recognized  the  equal  value  of  the  relations  of 
church  and  state  to  its  prosperity.  It  was  the  pio- 
neer college  to  admit  alumni  representation  into 
this  board.  It  was  the  pioneer  college  to  organ- 
ize an  alumni  association.  When,  in  1836,  the 
class  just  graduating,  to  which  Professor  Hopkins 
had  given  the  instruction  usually  received  from  the 
president,  sent  to  the  board  of  trustees  sitting  to 
elect  a  successor  to  President  Griffin  a  paper  ex- 
pressing gratitude  to  the  trustees  for  the  instruction 
which  they  had  received  from  Professor  Hopkins, 
and  strongly  intimating  that  they  would  like  to 
have  him  elected  president,  the  trustees,  under  the 
lead  of  Vice-President  Shepard,  unanimously  rati- 


THE  ADMINISTRATOR.  61 

fied  the  nomination.     No  prominent  New  England 
college  dating  from  the  last  eentnry  has  nntil  within 
ten  years  elected  so  yonthful  a  president,  and  no 
president  as  yet  has  filled  so  long  a  term  of  presi- 
dential dnties.     The  age  seemed  far  yonnger  then 
than  it  does  now.      Doubtless  the  successful  exam- 
ple of  this  presidency  has  done  something  towards 
changing  the  popidar  conception  as  to  the  desira- 
ble age  for  entering  the  office.     In  Professor  Hop- 
kins's case  it  may  be  said  that  he  had  the  intel- 
lectual maturity  of  middle  life  at  the  age  of  thirty, 
and  the  intellectual  freshness  of  thirty  when  he  re- 
signed his  position  in  1872.     He  was  mature  when 
he  was  young,  and  young  when  he  was  old.     With 
the  ever-increasing  complexity  of  college  relations 
there  is  a  natural  tendency  to  a  diminution  of  the 
instruction    given   by  the    president,  and    also    of 
the  age  at  which  the  duties  are  assumed,  but  he 
was  the  last  New  England   president  of   the  old 
type,  and  for  thirty-six  years  gave  an  amount  of 
instruction  probably  unequaled  by  any  teacher  of 
his  day.     If  his  enjoyment  of  achninistrative  duties 
was  at  times  small,  and  his  weariness  of  that  com- 
petition which  began  in  his  day  and  has  helped  to 
remove  from  our  colleges  academical  quiet  was  at 
times  great,  he  enjoyed  teaching,  and  the  most  cap- 
tious critic  was  ready  to  admit  his  transcendent 
ability  as  a  teacher. 

In  his  inaugural  address,  delivered  September 
15,  1836,  he  puts  into  words  the  conceptions  of 
true  teachino-  which  he  so  fully  realized  in  his  life. 


62  MABK  HOPKINS. 

A  sentence  or  two  will  give  a  glimpse  into  tlie  se- 
cret of  his  success. 

"It  is  far  easier  for  a  teacher  to  generalize  a 
class  and  give  it  a  lesson  to  get  by  rote,  and  hear  it 
said,  and  let  it  pass,  than  it  is  to  ^vatch  the  prog- 
ress of  individual  mind,  and  awaken  interest,  and 
answer  objections,  and  explore  tendencies,  and,  be- 
ginning with  the  elements,  construct  together  with 
his  pupils,  so  that  they  shall  feel  that  they  aid  in 
it,  the  fair  fabric  of  a  science  wdth  which  they  shall 
be  familiar  from  the  foundation  to  the  top  stone." 
The  laboratory  method,  so  poj)idar  now,  was  his 
conception  from  the  beginning. 

"  He  who  carries  the  torch-light  into  the  recesses 
of  science,  and  shows  the  gems  that  are  sparkling 
there,  must  not  be  a  mere  hired  conductor,  who  is 
to  bow  in  one  company  and  bow  out  another,  and 
show  what  is  to  be  seen  with  a  heartless  indiif  erence ; 
but  must  have  an  ever -living  fountain  of  emotion, 
that  will  flow  afresh,  as  he  contemplates  anew  the 
works  of  God  and  the  great  principles  of  truth  and 
duty." 

The  position  of  college  president  when  Professor 
Mark  Hopkins  w^as  elected  to  the  presidency  of 
Williams  was  quite  other  than  it  is  to-day.  Good 
teaching  seemed  then  the  primary,  almost  the  only 
element  necessary  for  the  success  of  a  college.  The 
sciences  were,  so  to  speak,  in  their  infancy,  and 
the  appliances  necessary  for  the  exposition  of  the 
leading  principles  were  not  numerous.  Undoubt- 
edly there  w  as  always  a  tendency  in  Dr.  Hopkins's 


rilE  ADMINISTRATOR.  63 

mind  to  set  a  very  high  vahie  on  piineii)les  and 
character,  and  to  disjiarage  mere  externals  hoth  in 
religion  and  education.  Even  to  the  very  end  of  his 
life,  though  as  to  refinements  and  luxuries  there  had 
been  a  striking  change  in  the  habits  of  our  society, 
elegancies  made  little  difference  to  him.  There 
was  in  him  something  of  the  simplicity  and  sever- 
ity (towards  himself  especially)  of  the  great  Lord 
Lawrence,  of  whom  it  is  related  that,  in  the  last  days 
of  his  life,  when,  tired  and  thirsty  and  feverish,  he 
passed  a  shop-window  in  which  fine  strawberries 
were  displayed,  and  felt  a  desire  to  taste  them,  he 
entered  the  shop  and  asked  the  price.  On  learning 
that  each  box  cost  ten  shillings,  he  replied,  "  Why, 
I  never  spent  so  much  on  myself  in  my  life,"  and 
turned  away.  This  noble  simplicity  in  Dr.  Hop- 
kins was  partly  the  result  of  Puritan  training,  and 
partly  the  outgrowth  of  earnest  thought.  It  be- 
longed also  with  the  period,  and  enabled  him  as 
president  to  concentrate  his  energies  without  any 
misgiving  on  the  personal  training  of  his  pupils. 
"Plain  living  and  high  thinking,"  in  the  truest 
sense  of  those  words,  marked  his  life,  and  his  con- 
duct of  the  college  led  to  the  same  lofty  simplicity 
in  others.  The  situation  of  the  college,  its  remote- 
ness from  any  large  city,  advantageous  in  many 
ways  for  the  ordinary  work  of  the  college,  made  it 
harder,  when  an  imperative  want  arose,  to  find  the 
means  to  meet  the  exigency.  There  were  neither 
the  persons  near  to  know  of  the  want,  nor  those 
with  large  means  to   meet  it.      In  such  a  condi- 


64  MARK  HOPKINS. 

tion  the  severe  simplicity  of  liis  life  often  led  to 
the  sternest  self-denial.  When  he  began  his  work 
as  president,  he  had  already  arrived  at  the  belief 
that  a  successful  study  of  the  intellectual  nature 
of  man  could  not  ignore  the  physical.  He  de- 
cided to  beo'in  the  instruction  of  the  Senior  class 
with  lessons  in  anatomy  and  physiology,  for  which 
his  own  training  had  given  him  pecidiar  fitness, 
and  to  develop  from  this  knowledge  the  study  of 
the  mental  and  moral  life.  For  this  purpose  he 
early  perceived  the  value  of  one  of  the  illustrat- 
ing ujanikins  which  had  come  into  usefulness  and 
renown  in  France.  In  1841  one  had  been  im- 
ported into  this  region,  probably  by  Dr.  Arms- 
by,  of  the  Albany  Medical  College,  but  for  some 
reason  was  offered  for  sale.  Its  price  w^as  several 
hundred  dollars.  As  the  funds  of  the  collesfe  did 
not  warrant  such  an  expenditure,  and  he  felt  that 
the  manikin  was  indispensable  for  his  work,  assum- 
ing the  responsibility  of  the  purchase,  he  gave  a 
note  for  the  amount  of  the  price,  and  determined 
to  pay  for  it  by  giving  lectures.  This  was  a  bold 
venture,  but  he  had  great  faith  in  the  attractive- 
ness of  the  paper-man  as  an  accompaniment  to 
lectures,  and  this  was  to  be  the  drawing-card  by 
which  the  lectures  were  to  be  made  profitable. 
The  manikin  was  to  pay  for  the  manikin. 

It  was  in  December  when  the  president  started 
out  with  his  manikin  carefidly  packed  in  the  box 
to  go  to  his  native  town,  Stockbridge,  and  there  to 
lecture  to  secure  money  wherewith  to  pay  for  his 


THE  ADMINISTRATOR.  65 

apparatus.  It  was  good  sleighing,  but  the  box  so 
filled  up  the  sleigh  that  the  lecturer  had  to  ride 
with  his  feet  hanging  outside  of  the  vehicle.  It 
was  not  a  dignified  or  comfortable  position  for  a 
college  president,  who  was  to  drive  thirty  miles  on 
a  cold  day,  but  at  this  distance  of  time  there  is 
something  impressive  in  the  picture.  That  lonely 
ride,  with  its  stern  purpose,  is  the  expression  of 
the  solitude  and  earnestness  that  marked  his  career 
as  college  president.  It  is  an  epitome  of  many 
long  years  of  patient  self-denying  devotion  to  the 
institution  to  which  he  had  given  his  life,  and  to 
depart  from  which  flattering  calls  to  positions  of 
comparative  ease  did  not  seem  to  tempt  him. 

The  construction  of  an  astronomical  observa- 
tory, the  first  in  the  country  permanently  connected 
with  a  college,  begun  at  Williams  in  1836  by  his 
brother.  Professor  Albert  Hopkins,  and  largely 
paid  for  from  his  resources,  is  another  illustration 
of  the  self-effacing  spirit  in  which  the  early  pro- 
fessors in  our  colleges  devoted  themselves  to  the  or- 
ganism. 

It  is  pleasant  to  find  a  record  of  the  success  of 
the  lectures  in  Stockbridge.  This  success  can  be 
regarded  as  typical. 

A  letter  from  Mrs.  John  Z.  Goodrich,  then  Mary 
Hopkins,  a  cousin  of  the  lecturer,  written  in  Jan- 
uary, 1842,  gives  some  account  of  the  compliments 
that  were  paid  to  the  lecturing  president. 

"  How  you  did  run  away  from .  us  without  ever 
bidding  us  'good-by.'     We  gave    you  credit   for 


66  MARK  HOPKINS. 

the  best  intentions,  however,  and  concluded  that 
you  did  not  get  through  packing  up  that  interest- 
ing figure  until  you  thought  it  too  late  to  call.  I 
had  a  dozen  things  to  say  to  you,  to  tell  you  the 
compliments  all  the  ladies  paid  to  you,  to  in  part 
recompense  you  for  the  labor  and  fatigue  you  had 
undergone  for  our  instruction  and  entertainment. 
There  never  was  anything  that  took  so  well  as  your 
lectures  here.  'No  man  but  Mark  Hopkins  could 
have  effected  such  a  thing.  It  has  advanced  us 
one  grand  step  in  intellectual  matters,  and  swept 
away  prejudices  that  have  hedged  us  about  ever- 
more,' said  one.  'In  interesting  us  in  his  paper- 
man,  Mark  Hopkins  has  attached  us  to  himself. 
We  had  no  idea  he  was  so  charming,'  said  an- 
other. Th3  young  gentlemen  say:  'It  is  too  bad. 
Here  we  have  been  exerting  our  bones,  muscles, 
and  mind  to  boot  for  years  to  excite  interest  in  the 
minds  of  the  fair  maidens  of  Stockbridge,  and  after 
all  this  paper-man  in  one  week's  time  has  engrossed 
more  thoughts  and  obtained  more  attention  than  we 
with  all  our  devotion  have  been  able  to  win. '  A 
lady  says:  'Well,  for  my  part,  I  think  Dr.  Hop- 
kins has  given  a  fine  blow  to  our  vanity.  When- 
ever I  see  a  fine  countenance  and  a  graceful  person, 
I  shall  only  think  that  the  possessor  has  a  particu- 
larly well-disposed  set  of  muscles  under  his  com- 
mand.' The  lectures  are  the  topic  constantly  .dis- 
cussed and  always  approvingly.  You  have  done  a 
great  deal  of  good,  and  given  me  personally  an  im- 
mense deal   of  pleasure    and  information.     I  am 


THE  ADMINISTRATOR.  67 

quite  willing  to  dispense  with  my  usual  quantum 
of  voice  for  a  few  weeks  for  the  gratification  I  en- 
joyed and  do  still  enjoy  from  those  lectures." 

Thus  it  appears  that  the  lectures  were  successful 
so  far  as  the  satisfaction  of  the  audience  was  con- 
cerned, but  how  much  threatened  still  to  come  out 
of  the  president's  salary,  at  that  time  about  $1,100, 
to  pay  for  the  manikin  does  not  appear.  From 
Stockbridge  the  medical  lecturer  went  to  Boston, 
but  whether  to  deliver  more  lectures  and  thus  re- 
duce farther  the  deficit  remaining  on  the  cost  of 
the  precious  manikin  is  uncertain.  There  is  on  the 
records  of  the  trustees  of  the  college  a  vote  passed 
August  16,  1842:  — 

"  That  the  note  of  President  Hopkins  for  8600, 
given  for  money  to  purchase  the  manikin,  be  can- 
celled, and  the  property  in  the  manikin  be  vested 
in  the  trustees." 

From  this  it  appears  that  even  after  the  college 
had  assumed  the  note,  and  the  property  in  the  man- 
ikin had  been  vested  in  the  college,  President  Hop- 
kins felt  so  keenly  the  embarrassment  to  the  treas- 
ury caused  by  th-e  purchase  that  he  endeavored  by 
most  self-denying  work  to  diminish  the  amount 
taken  from  the  funds  of  the  college. 

It  is  not  an  unnatural  suggestion  that  the  heroic 
effort  to  pay  for  the  manikin  is  a  symbol  of  Dr. 
Hopkins's  presidential  career.  With  kingly  gifts, 
with  an  equipoise  of  imagination  and  insight,  con- 
sciously capable  of  large  giving  and  of  large  doing, 
it  was  more  natural  for  him  to  rely  upon  his  own 


68  MARE  HOPKINS. 

powers  than  to  appeal  to  others  for  aid.  It  seems 
unreasonable,  at  this  period,  that  a  college  with  five 
hundred  living  graduates,  whose  president  was  the 
peer  of  any  president,  should  permit  its  head  to  re- 
sort to  itinerant  lecturing  in  order  to  pay  for  the 
apparatus  needful  for  his  college  work.  It  is  prob- 
able that  there  were  friends  ready  toi  relieve  him  of 
such  labor  by  generous  help  whenever  they  should 
know  of  his  embarrassment.  He  preferred  to  earn 
the  money  for  the  equipments  necessary  rather  than 
call  upon  others  to  assist  him,  and  he  went  noise- 
lessly to  the  work.  There  is  something  magnificent 
to  one  reviewing  his  ihirty-six  years  of  presiden- 
tial office  in  the  self-reliant,  quiet,  uncomplaining 
movement  by  which  he  gave  and  gave,  and  never 
asked  for  help  except  in  the  extremest  necessity. 
Nor  is  it  any  discredit,  but  rather  the  highest  praise, 
that  begging  was  utterly  distastefid  to  him,  and 
that  it  was  definitely  understood  at  his  election  that 
he  was  not  to  solicit  funds  for  the  support  of  the 
college.  He  was  willing  to  undertake  the  manage- 
ment, with  the  very  loftiest  aims  definitely  pre- 
sented before  himself  and  plainly  announced  to 
his  constituents,  but  the  resources  for  his  great 
work  were  in  himself,  and  it  must  be  understood 
that  he  could  not  collect  money  for  the  college. 
The  years  slipped  by,  and  the  seed  that  he  had 
sown  kept  bearing  fruit.  New  England  families 
sent  to  his  care  boys  grounded  in  sound  morality. 
Boys  came  from  Troy  and  the  central  cities  of  New 
York,  attracted  by  his  reputation.     The  good  name 


THE  ADMINISTRATOR.  G9 

of  the  college  traveled  to  the  growing  West,  and  the 
college  among  the  Berkshire  hills  became,  as  he 
hoped  it  might  be  when  penning  his  inaugural, 
"a  safe  college  ;  "  a  place  of  "health  and  cheerful 
study  and  kind  feelings  and  pure  morals."  It  be- 
came also  a  national  college,  flourishing  in  num- 
bers and  in  reputation,  everywhere  honored. 
Probably  its  situation  in  the  midst  of  the  moun- 
tains was  not  an  unfavorable  element  in  the  growth 
of  that  period.  Its  guardians,  influenced  partly 
by  the  effect  on  their  own  mature  minds  of  occa- 
sional visits  to  the  delightful  scenery  that  environs 
the  college,  and  in  many  cases  by  the  affections 
born  in  their  own  college  life,  have  been  inclined  to 
emphasize  the  beauty  of  its  surroundings  and  the 
purity  of  its  atmosphere.  It  has  seemed  to  them  in 
the  light  of  revived  sentiment  an  unusually  favor- 
able place  for  study,  where  it  would  be  easy,  — • 

' '  to  lure  the  eye 
To  sound  the  science  of  the  sky, 
And  carry  learning  to  its  height 
Of  untried  power  and  sane  delight," 

but  it  is  a  wiser  view  that  the  growth  of  any  col- 
lege must  depend  in  the  long  run  on  the  educational 
advantages  which  it  offers  and  the  thorouglmess 
of  its  work.  And  honorable  as  was  the  self-reli- 
ance and  majesty  with  which  Dr.  Hopkins  carried 
on  the  coUege,  and  phenomenal  as  was  its  success 
for  many  years  under  his  guidance,  it  was  not  pos- 
sible for  it  to  maintain  its  prestige  against  increas- 
ing competition,  if  any  great  change  should  occur, 


70  MARE  HOPKINS. 

without  a  large  increase  of  pecuniary  resources. 
If  there  was  no  one  to  foresee  that  Dr.  Hopkins's 
massive  powers  would  need  reinforcement,  and  to 
secure  that  reinforcement  so  early  and  so  fully 
that  adverse  influences  could  be  overcome,  his  co- 
lossal labors  might  suffer  loss.  When  the  Confed- 
erate insurrection  came,  and  many  of  his  students 
entered  the  Union  army,  the  crisis  so  long  pos- 
sible became  actual.  The  numbers  in  the  classes 
diminished  greatly,  and  there  were  no  funds  to 
make  up  for  the  loss  of  tuition.  At  last,  in  1868, 
through  the  influence  of  Marshall  Wilcox,  then  of 
Lee,  and  Samuel  W.  Bowerman,  of  Pittsfield,  both 
graduates  of  the  class  of  1844,  and  at  that  time 
both  members  of  the  Massachusetts  Senate,  and 
through  assistance  rendered  by  Joseph  White  of 
the  class  of  1836,  at  that  time  Secretary  of  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Board  of  Education,  and  others,  and 
through  Dr.  Hopkins's  personal  attention,  the 
Commonwealth  of  Massachusetts  by  its  legisla- 
ture, recognizing  the  honorable  history  of  the  col- 
lege and  its  peril,  promised  to  aid  the  college  to 
the  extent  of  -125,000  a  year  for  three  years,  pro- 
vided a  like  sum  was  raised  each  of  the  three  years 
by  the  friends  of  the  college.  The  State  of  Massa- 
chusetts had  made  grants  to  the  college  in  its  ear- 
lier history,  and  like  assistance  had  been  rendered 
to  other  institutions.  The  invested  and  productive 
funds  of  the  college  in  1868  were  about  1100,000. 
By  that  act  of  the  General  Court  there  was  a  pos- 
sibility that  the  resources  of  the  college  should  be 


THE  ADMINISTRATOR.  71 

more  than  doubled  within  three  years.  The  pas- 
sage of  this  act  was  joyfully  hailed  by  all  true 
friends  of  the  college,  but  the  collection  of  the  con- 
ditional 175,000  meant  no  child's  play  for  the  pres- 
ident, whose  instruction  still  extended  from  Sep- 
tember until  June,  and  whose  labor  as  pastor  of 
the  college  church  covered  every  Sunday  of  the  col- 
lege year.  Alexander  H.  Bullock  was  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  the  year  of  the  passage  of  this  act, 
and  the  following  graceful  letter  was  received  from 
him  in  response  to  an  invitation  from  Dr.  Hopkins 
to  be  present  at  the  Commencement  in  the  summer 
of  the  year  when  the  act  was  passed. 

Watch  Hill,  R.  I.,  July  26,  1868. 

Your  favor  of  the  21st  instant,  inviting  me  to  attend 
the  Commencement  Exercises  of  Williams  College  on 
the  29th  instant,  finds  me  at  an  out-of-the-way  seaside 
spot  to  which  I  have  sought  a  brief  resort  for  relaxa- 
tion. The  necessity  of  a  little  respite  from  labor  at 
this  season  must  be  my  warrant  for  asking  to  be  excused 
from  the  journey  necessary  to  bring  me  to  your  college 
on  Wednesday. 

I  should  for  many  reasons  like  extremely  to  be  with 
you  at  your  pending  anniversary.  My  visit  at  Williams- 
town,  two  years  ago,  was  enjoyed  so  greatly  that  I  could 
wish  to  repeat  it.  But  more  especially  would  I  be 
pleased  to  have  the  opportunity  of  congratulating  the 
guardians  and  friends  of  W^illiams  College  for  her  pres- 
ent advanced  stage  of  prosperity  and  renown.  As  the 
executive  representative  of  the  Commonwealth  I  am 
happy  and  proud  to  have  had  a  hand  in  this.     The  bill 


72  MABK  HOPKINS. 

which  appropriated  seventy-five  thousand  dollars  to  the 
college,  passed  by  the  present  legislature,  was  so  conso- 
nant with  my  judgment  and  feelings  that  my  ajDproving 
signature  was  appended  to  it  within  one  minute  after  it 
had  been  laid  before  me.  Not  only  my  connections,  but 
all  the  emotions  of  which  my  heart  is  capable,  were  con- 
densed in  that  signature.  To  be  an  instrument  in  thus 
promoting  the  interests  of  good  morals  and  sound  learn- 
ing is  a  pleasure  that  will  abide  with  me  through  all  the 
pathway  of  my  remaining  life.  I  beseech  the  public, 
the  lovers  of  our  State,  the  patrons  and  the  alumni  of 
Williams,  to  see  to  it  that  their  part  be  quickly  per- 
formed to  the  end,  that  your  honored  institution  may 
take  a  fresh  start  at  once  on  a  new  and  grand  career. 

I  desire,  also,  in  behalf  of  the  people  of  Massachu- 
setts, to  thank  you,  Mr.  President,  for  the  long,  patient, 
and  beneficent  service  you  have  rendered  to  the  republic 
of  letters.  If  the  time  shall  come  when  any  of  us  must 
believe  you  to  be  an  old  man,  —  that  time  is  not  yet,  — 
it  will  be  to  us  all  a  source  of  pride  and  solace  that  we 
may  claim  your  long  life  as  a  glorious  part  of  our  moral 
public  riches. 

And  now,  my  dear  sir,  although  this  communication 
contains  a  passage  which  my  acquaintance  with  you  tells 
me  you  would  gladly  suppress,  I  must  request  that  you 
will  do  me  the  favor  to  read  it  to  the  alumni  at  the 
Commencement  dinner.  For,  believe  me,  it  is  not  a  let- 
ter designed  for  personal  tribute  so  much  as  for  justice 
to  Williams  College,  and  to  the  service  rendered  by  her 
in  the  cause  of  religion,  and  virtue,  and  knowledge. 

I  am,  my  dear  sir,  with  fresh  and  enduring  senti- 
ments of  esteem  and  honor, 

Faithfully  yours,         Alexander  H.  Bullock. 


THE  ADMISISTRATOH.  78 

The  complimentary  words  to  Dr.  Hopkins  were 
warmly  received  by  the  alumni,  as  such  words  al- 
ways were.  Professor  Lowell,  of  Cambridge,  in 
1885,  in  a  private  note  to  me  expressed  the  same 
sentiment  that  the  above  letter  contains  of  pride 
in  the  life  of  Dr.  Hopkins,  "whose  personal  char- 
acter is  a  possession  valued  by  all  his  countrymen." 
No  words  could  more  fitly  describe  his  career  as 
administrator  than  the  quotation  from  Lowell  at  the 
beginning  of  this  chapter.  It  was  preeminently  a 
career  of  "endurance,"  of  that  "patience"  which 
is  "all  the  passion  of  great  hearts ;  "  of  that  "faith  " 
which  is  the  "assurance  of  things  hoped  for,  the 
proving  of  things  not  seen." 

Additions  to  the  funds  of  the  college  had  pre- 
viously come  into  the  treasury  slowly  as  the  unsoli- 
cited result  of  his  long  and  eminent  services.  In 
1867  William  E.  Dodge,  of  New  York  city,  who 
had  long  been  associated  with  Dr.  Hopkins  in  the 
missionary  work  of  the  American  Board  of  Com- 
missioners, gave  to  the  college  830,000  in  seven 
per  cent,  bonds,  of  which  the  interest  was  to  go 
towards  Dr.  Hopkins's  salary  as  long  as  he  was 
president  or  taught  in  the  college.  After  his  re- 
tirement from  all  college  work  the  income  was  to 
be  devoted  to  his  personal  support  during  his  life. 

In  the  autumn  of  1868  occurred  the  most  re- 
markable rebellion  in  the  history  of  the  coUege,  of 
which  a  complete  account  must  be  given  in  a  sepa- 
rate chapter.  It  caused  Dr.  Hopkins  much  dis- 
tress of  mind,  and  did  not    promise  to  make  his 


74  MARK  HOPKINS. 

duty  in  raising  the  money  necessary  to  secure  the 
gift  of  the  State  any  easier.  However,  the  la- 
bor of  the  first  year  was  carried  through  without 
great  depression.  For  the  second  and  third  years  a 
gift  of  $'10,000  each  year  towards  a  professorship, 
by  Orrin  Sage,  of  Ware,  was  of  much  assistance, 
yet  the  difficulty  of  securing  the  remainder  was 
great  each  year,  but  was  finally  surmounted,  and 
^150,000  added  to  the  resources  of  the  college. 
Nearly  all  the  large  gifts  that  had  previously 
encouraged  Dr.  Hopkins  came  by  the  simple  at- 
traction of  his  power.  When  East  College  was 
burned  in  the  autumn  of  1841,  and  it  became  ne- 
cessary to  erect  new  dormitories,  the  present  East 
and  South  colleges,  subscriptions  to  the  amount  of 
over  88,000  were  secured,  and  an  unexpected  gift 
of  $5,000,  in  January,  1844,  from  Amos  Lawrence, 
nearly  covered  the  deficit.  Mr.  Lawrence  contin- 
ued to  show  kindness  to  the  college  until  his  con- 
tributions amounted  probably  to  835, 000.  Another 
warm  friend  to  the  college  during  Dr.  Hopkins's 
administration  was  Nathan  Jackson,  of  New  York 
city.  Philip  Van  Ness  Morris,  of  Cambridge, 
New  York,  Alfred  Smith,  of  Hartford,  Connecti- 
cut, William  J.  Walker,  of  Boston,  David  Dudley 
Field,  of  New  York  city,  John  Z.  Goodrich,  of 
Stockbridge,  were  the  other  gentlemen  whose  ap- 
preciation of  the  value  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  influence 
and  whose  esteem  for  the  college  led  them  to  put 
large  gifts  at  his  disposal  for  the  great  work  of  es- 
tablishing and  strengthening  the  college.     At  the 


THE  ADMINISTBATOE.  75 

date  of  his  resignation  in  1872,  the  invested  funds 
of  the  college  amounted  to  about  §^300,000.  The 
Astronomical  Observatory,  East  and  South  College, 
Lawrence  Hall,  Kellogg  Hall,  Jackson  Hall,  the 
Chapel,  Goodrich  Hall,  and  College  Hall  were 
erected  during  his  presidency.  Indeed,  the  only 
halls  that  remained  from  previous  administrations 
were  old  West  College  and  Griffin  Hall.  But  the 
feeling  was  universal,  when  he  resigned  the  presi- 
dency, that  his  work  had  not  gone  into  buildings 
and  land  and  equipment,  or  into  the  acquisition  of 
wealth  for  the  college,  but  into  the  minds  and 
hearts  of  those  whom  he  had  taught;  that  he  had 
moulded  invisible  forces  with  great  power. 

Speaking  of  the  graduates,  his  own  pupils,  he 
himself  said,  when  his  successor  was  inaugurated: 
"Not  in  the  increase  of  buildings,  or  grounds,  or 
funds,  but  in  these  is  my  pride.  In  respect  to 
character,  position,  or  influence  they  have  nothing 
to  fear  from  a  comparison  with  an  equal  number  of 
graduates  from  any  other  institution." 

It  required  the  eye  of  a  large  faith  to  see  that 
the  forces  he  employed  for  the  college  could  not 
fail  to  find  expression  in  abundant  material  pros- 
perity, but  he  lived  to  see  the  dawn  of  brighter 
days,  and  to  know  that  his  heroic  labor  had  not 
been  in  vain.  General  Garfield,  then  a  member 
of  the  national  House  of  Representatives,  gave  ex- 
pression to  the  almost  unanimous  feeling  of  the 
graduates,  when  at  the  inauguration  of  Dr.  Hop- 
kins's successor  he  spoke  these  words  to  the  new 
president :  — 


76  MABK  HOPKINS. 

"We  recognize  the  difficulty  of  the  work  you 
undertake  as  the  head  of  the  college  —  a  work  al- 
ways great,  always  difficult,  but  now  made  doubly 
so  by  the  example  of  him  who  has  so  long  and  so 
nobly  trodden  the  path  which  you  now  enter.  We 
will  not  ask  you  to  bend  the  bow  of  our  Ulysses. 
Let  it  here  remain  unbent  forever,  as  the  sacred 
symbol  and  trophy  of  victories  achieved." 

Few  knew  in  the  face  of  what  pressing  offers 
he  had  remained  faithful  to  the  trust  committed 
to  him  in  1836,  and  even  after  his  resignation  as 
president  frequent  invitations  came  to  him  to  teach 
in  other  institutions. 

A  partial  record  of  these  invitations  will  disclose 
how  widely  he  was  known  and  how  universally  he 
was  honored.  This  may  be  found  in  the  Chrono- 
logical Table,^  which  does  not,  however,  include  an 
account  of  the  large  number  of  invitations  to  preach 
on  special  occasions  and  before  distinguished  audi- 
ences. When  we  consider  the  location  of  the  col- 
lege, the  want  of  any  peculiar  denominational  sup- 
port, the  absence  of  any  state  pride  in  the  college, 
the  fact  that  no  fitting-schools  were  subsidiary  to 
it,  and  that  President  Hopkins  never  knew  from 
where  his  students  were  to  come,  his  career  as 
administrator,  teacher,  author,  and  example,  lead- 
ing the  college  to  success  and  honor  for  thirty-six 
years,  stands  mthout  a  parallel  in  the  history  of 
American  colleges. 

^  See  pages  ix-xi. 


THE  REBELLION  OF  1868. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE   REBELLION   OF    1868. 

In  the  autumn  of  1868  a  rebellion  occurred 
among  the  students  of  Williams  College  which  was, 
without  doubt,  the  most  serious  affair  of  the  kind 
in  the  history  of  the  college. 

There  was  at  the  time  a  very  able  body  of  pro- 
fessors in  the  conduct  of  the  institution.  Such 
men  as  John  Bascom,  at  that  time  Professor  of 
Rhetoric,  Arthur  L.  Perry,  Professor  of  Political 
Economy,  Charles  F.  Gilson,  in  the  Chair  of 
Modern  Languages,  Sanborn  Tenney,  Professor 
of  Natural  History,  and  Ai-thur  W.  Wright,  Pro- 
fessor of  Physics,  and  later  of  Yale  College,  and 
William  R.  Dimmock,  Professor  of  Greek,  and 
afterwards  Head  Master  of  Adams  Academy  at 
Quincy,  wer6  among  the  truest  men  and  the  most 
conscientious  teachers  to  be  found  in  any  of  our 
colleges.  They  were  men  to  whom  tlie  work  of 
the  college'  was  of  the  first  importance,  and  who 
could  not  be  satisfied  unless  each  student  was  profit- 
ing by  his  work  and  showing  daily  the  increasing 
knowledge  of  the  subjects  taught.  There  grew  up 
in  the  minds  of  these  men  and  others  a  feeling  that 
their  efforts  to  secure  the  best  results  for  an  entire 


80  MARK  HOPKIXS. 

class  were  in  danger  of  being  thwarted  by  persist- 
ent and  unnecessary  absence  on  the  part  of  a  few 
students.  I  was  a  member  of  the  faculty  at  that 
time.  Having  been  prepared  for  college  under  the 
stern  requirements  of  Dr.  Samuel  H.  Taylor,  of 
Andover,  and  having  had  my  first  experience  of 
college  life  at  Yale  when  the  numbers  were  so 
large  as  to  make  the  strictest  rules  necessary,  I 
had  both  as  student  and  professor  at  Williams  a 
feeling  that  there  was  more  absence  allowed  than 
was  necessary  or  advisable.  Dr.  Hopkins  was  not 
a  believer  in  rigid  rules.  I  think  there  never  was 
a  time  during  my  acquaintance  with  him,  when 
such  matters  were  under  discussion,  that  he  did  not 
express  himself  frankly  in  favor,  for  a  small  college, 
of  a  more  personal  and  a  more  flexible  system  of 
government  than  most  of  us  advocated.  He  dep- 
recated that  antagonism  which  rigid  and  minute 
rules  were,  he  thought,  sure  to  engender.  He  be- 
lieved fully  in  the  general  influence  of  a  faithful 
and  earnest  body  of  teachers,  and  thought  that 
young  men  could  be  far  more  effectually  guided 
to  true  manliness  by  an  example  of  kindness  and 
patience  than  by  formal  restrictions  or  constant 
intimations  that  they  were  under  authority.  He 
was,  I  think,  equally  opposed  to  any  vefy  definite 
system  of  penalties.  It  was  offensive  to  his  ideas 
of  proper  training  to  treat  all  students  in  exactly 
the  same  way.  His  conviction  was  strong  that  all 
students  are  not  precisely  alike  in  their  training, 
or  tendencies,   or  abilities.      This   feeling  used  to 


TUE  REBELLIOy    OF  18GS.  81 

show  itself  often  and  strongly  in  the  discussions 
that  arose  in  regard  to  students  whose  work  was 
deficient.  It  was  a  frequent  remark  of  his,  that 
"some  one  must  be  at  the  foot  of  the  class."  He 
did  not  deny  that  human  government  was  com- 
pelled to  allow  but  narrow  range  in  penalties  and 
practically  to  treat  offenders  with  uniformity.  But 
he  had  an  idea  that  college  government  might  have 
something  nobler  in  it  than  social  government  could 
have,  that  it  might  have  a  good  deal  of  the  divine 
element  of  mercy,  or  at  least  of  fatherly  kindness. 
The  two  opposing  theories  briefly  hinted  at  here 
have  at  different  times  occasioned  more  or  less 
collision  in  our  colleges.  To  give  students  fuller 
liberty  and  appeal  to  their  honor,  or  to  put  rigor- 
ous requirements  upon  them  and  hold  them  to 
definite  duties  and  attainments  are  the  two  concep- 
tions that  still  differentiate  the  New  England  col- 
leges. There  can,  of  course,  be  no  question  which 
of  the  two  methods  is  nobler,  if  students  were  all 
actuated  by  high  principle,  and  were  all  aiming  at 
a  high  ideal.  There  can  be,  on  the  other  hand,  no 
doubt  which  method  would  be  necessary,  if  the  ma- 
jority of  the  students  were  inclined  to  make  their 
life  as  easy  and  self-indulgent  as  possible.  Be- 
cause these  two  classes  of  students  exist  in  col- 
leges in  ever-varying  proportions,  and  especially 
because  most  students  have  in  them  the  two  oppos- 
ing tendencies  in  varying  strength,  there  will  al- 
ways be  an  opportunity  for  good  arguments  in 
favor  of  each  method  of  government.      The  more 


82  MARE  HOPKINS. 

generally  popular  theory  in  the  New  England  col- 
leges during  Dr.  Hopkins's  administration  of  Wil- 
liams was  probably  somewhat  opposed  to  his  views, 
but  that  there  has  been  a  movement  if  not  precisely 
towards  the  acceptance  of  his  theories,  at  least  in 
that  general  direction  in  later  years,  hardly  admits 
of  a  doubt. 

These  two  theories  are  always  more  or  less  in 
conflict  in  individual  minds,  and  are  both  pretty 
sure  to  find  expression  in  the  same  college  faculty. 
There  had  been  for  a  year  or  two  previous  to  the 
autumn  of  1868  a  growing  impression  among  the 
students  of  the  college  that  the  more  liberal  view, 
that  which  would  govern  by  influence  rather  than 
by  rules,  was  giving  place  to  a  closer  watch  and  a 
more  stringent  requirement.  AVhen,  accordingly, 
the  question  of  absences  was  discussed  by  the  fac- 
ulty, and  a  series  of  rules  was  promulgated  with 
the  definite  purpose  of  restricting  the  amount  of 
absence,  the  students  felt  that  here  was  another 
movement  towards  the  introduction  of  what  they 
called  "school-boy  methods."  There  were  one  or 
two  things  particularly  unfortunate  about  the 
change.  One  was,  that  although  the  committee  of 
the  faculty  was  appointed  at  a  meeting  at  which 
the  president  was  present,  the  committee  reported 
and  the  rules  were  adopted  during  Dr.  Hopkins's 
absence.  The  students  learned  this,  and  at  once 
jumped  to  the  inference  that  the  president  would 
not  favor  these  rules,  and  that  they  had  been 
adopted  in  his  absence  without  regard  to  his  wishes. 


THE  REBELLION  OF  1868.  83 

They  heard  in  some  way  the  substance  of  the 
rules  before  they  were  definitely  adopted,  and  be- 
lieving them  to  be  capable  of  unjust  application  by 
unfriendly  or  indifferent  instructors,  tJiey  were  ex- 
tremely restive.  After  the  formal  approval  of  the 
rules  by  the  faculty  they  called  for  an  immediate 
rejieal. 

The  rules  were  as  follows:  " Each  absence  from 
any  recitation,  whether  at  the  beginning  of  or  dur- 
ing the  term,  whether  excused  or  unexcused,  will 
count  as  zero  in  the  record  of  standing.  In  cases, 
however,  in  whicli  attendance  shall  be  shown  by 
the  student  to  have  been  impossible,  each  officer 
shall  have  the  o])tion  of  allowing  the  recitation  to 
be  made  uj)  at  such  time  as  he  shall  apj^oint ;  and 
no  mark  shall  be  given  to  such  recitation,  unless  it 
shall  amount  to  a  substantial  performance  of  the 
work  omitted." 

The  ideas  in  these  rules  were  approved  by  the 
faculty  at  their  regular  meeting  on  the  evening  of 
November  4,  1868,  and  some  professor  stated  the 
substance  of  their  purport  to  his  class  the  next 
morning.  So  far  as  I  can  ascertain  from  the  rec- 
ords, the  rules  were  more  definitely  presented  and 
fully  discussed  at  a  special  meeting  held  on  the  even- 
ing of  November  5.  They  were  formally  commu- 
nicated to  the  students  the  day  after  their  adoption. 
These  rules  are  substantially  the  same  that  had  been 
for  many  years  operative  in  Yale  College,  but  the 
insertion  of  the  statement  that  no  mark  should  be 
given  to  the  recitation  made  up,  "unless  it  shall 


84  MABE  HOPKINS. 

amount  to  a  substantial  performance  of  the  work 
omitted,"  was  quite  unnecessary,  as  each  officer 
without  such  statement  would  mark  the  recitation 
according  to  his  estimate  of  it.  Furthermore,  this 
definite  statement  seemed  to  the  students  to  be  an 
offensive  assertion  of  power  to  depriv^e  a  delinquent 
of  the  small  recognition  that  might  be  justly  due 
him.  There  was  also  a  feeling  that  not  to  allow  a 
student  to  make  up  an  omitted  lesson,  unless  at- 
tendance was  shown  to  be  impossible,  would  often 
result  in  hardship,  where  a  student  might  be  in 
circumstances  such  that  attendance  would  be  very 
difficult,  or  at  least  require  the  neglect  of  some 
important  duty,  and  yet  be  possible. 

Against  these  two  points,  or  rather  against  the 
extreme  form  of  power  apj^arently  given  to  any 
professor  to  reduce  the  standing  of  a  student,  the 
students  revolted  almost  unanimously.  I  venture 
here  to  record  the  statement  that  at  the  meeting 
of  the  faculty  on  the  evening  of  November  5,  at 
which  the  rules  were  presented  in  their  final  form, 
one  professor  expressed  the  opinion  that  the  rules 
could  not  be  executed  in  the  existing  state  of 
things.  He  was  answered  by  one  of  the  professors 
on  the  committee  that  ''the  rules  would  execute 
themselves." 

On  the  evening  of  November  6,  the  day  on  which 
the  rules  were  announced,  the  entire  college  assem- 
bled in  Alumni  Hall,  and  unanimously  adopted  the 
following  preamble  and  resolution :  — 

"  Whereas,  the  faculty  of  Williams  College  have 


THE  REBELLION   OF  1868.  85 

imposed  upon  us,  students  of  said  college,  a  itlIc 
to  the  effect  that  each  absence  from  recitation,  ex- 
cused or  unexcused,  shiiU  receive  a  zero  mark  in 
the  record  of  standing;  and  it  is  left  with  each 
officer  of  the  college  to  act  his  option  as  to  whether 
he  will  hear  necessary  absentees  in  their  lost  les- 
sons ;  and  said  officer  shall  act  his  option  as  to  giv- 
ing any  credit  for  such  recitation ;  and 

"Whereas  we,  students  of  Williams  College, 
regard  the  imposition  of  this  rule  as  a  blow  aimed 
at  our  personal  honor  and  manhood,  therefore 

"  Resolved,  That  we  students  of  said  college  pro- 
test against  said  rule,  and  call  upon  the  faculty  of 
AVilliams  College  to  annul  it." 

This  paper  was  presented  the  evening  of  its 
adoption  to  the  officer  of  the  Senior  class,  but  was 
regarded  by  him  and  by  other  members  of  the  fac- 
ulty as  much  too  imperious  in  tone  to  permit  any 
hast}^  reconsiderMion  of  the  rule. 

Probably  the  wisest  course  would  have  been  for 
the  faculty  to  susj^end  the  enforcement  of  the  rules 
until  the  return  of  Dr.  Hopkins  and  to  discuss  the 
matter  carefully  with  him.  But  there  was  a  belief 
that  the  conflict  was  "irrepressible;  "  that  the  ques- 
tion now  w^as  whether  the  faculty  or  the  students 
should  determine  the  policy  of  the  college";  and 
that  the  students'  attitude  made  it  impossible  for 
the  faculty  to  do  otherwise  than  stand  by  the  rule. 
According!}^,  although  the  committee  of  the  stu- 
dents not  merely  delivered  the  resolutions  that 
evening,  but  the  next  day  visited  the  Senior  class 


86  MARE  HOPKINS. 

officer,  who  was  looked  upon  as  the  real  head  of 
the  faculty  in  Dr.  Hopkins's  absence,  and  urgently 
pressed  him  to  call  a  faculty  meeting  for  the  con- 
sideration of  the  situation,  and  especially  urged 
that  the  enforcement  of  the  rule  be  delayed  until 
the  president's  return,  by  general  consent  of  the 
professors,  a  policy  of  inactivity  was  adopted. 

The  students  regarded  themselves  as  entirely  in 
the  right,  and  while  there  was  much  excitement,  no 
general  disturbance  of  the  peace  occurred.  The 
student  committee  sent  to  each  class  the  follow- 
ing notice :  — 

"The  committee  w^ill  report  on  Tuesday  evening 
next,  before  which  time  they  earnestly  recommend 
that  there  be  no  individual  or  concerted  action. 
November  7,  18t38." 

This  notice  is  dated  the  7th,  which  w^as  Saturday. 
The  most  active  Christian  men  in  the  college  w^ere 
heartily  enlisted  on  the  student  side  of  the  matter. 
Saturday,  Sunday,  and  Monday,  the  students  were 
discussing  the  question  what  their  next  move  should 
be,  if  the  faculty  would  not  at  least  suspend  the 
rule.  On  Monday  evening  the  committee  came  to 
the  decision  to  recommend  to  the  entire  body  of 
students  to  withdraw  from  the  college,  and  to  re- 
main aloof  from  it,  until  the  rule  w^as  re]3ealed. 
This  decision  was  made  known  to  the  classes  on 
Tuesday  morning,  that  every  student  might  have 
the  day  for  consideration,  and  deliberately  making 
up  his  mind  might  go  into  the  college  meeting  ap- 
pointed for  Tuesday  evening  and  act  intelligently, 


THE  REBELLION   OF  1868.  87 

and  "not  feel  that  he  had  been  dragged  along  by 
the  spirit  of  the  meeting." 

The  meeting  was  held,  and  the  following  pream- 
bles and  resolution  were  unanimously  adopted :  — 

"  Whereas,  The  faculty  of  Williams  Collejre  have 
imposed  upon  us,  students  of  said  college,  a  rule 
that  'Each  absence  from  any  recitation  whether  at 
the  beginning  of  or  during  the  term,  whether  ex- 
cused or  unexeused,  will  count  as  zero  in  the  record 
of  standing.  In  cases,  however,  in  which  attend- 
ance shall  be  shown  to  have  been  impossible,  each 
officer  shall  have  the  option  of  allowing  the  reci- 
tation to  be  made  up  at  such  time  as  he  shall 
appoint,  and  no  mark  shall  be  given  to  such  recita- 
tion, unless  it  shall  amount  to  a  substantial  perfor- 
mance of  the  work  omitted  ; '  and 

"Whereas  we,  students  of  said  Williams  Col- 
lege, regard  the  imposition  of  this  rule  as  a  blow 
aimed  at  our  personal  honor  and  manhood ;  and 

"  Whereas,  our  petition  presented  to  the  Faculty 
of  said  Williams  College,  November  6,  1868,  for 
the  repeal  of  the  above-mentioned  rule,  has  been 
disregarded,  therefore 

"Resolved,  That  we  students  of  said  Williams 
College  declare  our  connection  with  said  college  to 
cease  from  this  date,  until  the  authorities  of  said 
college  shall  repeal  the  above-mentioned  rule." 

The  following  resolution  was  also  unanimously 
adopted :  — 

"  Resolved,  That  we,  as  a  body  of  young  men, 
agree  to  remain  in  this  neighborhood  and  abstain 


88  MARK  HOPKINS. 

from  all  objectionable  conduct,  until  the  final  set- 
tlement of  our  difficulties." 

The  paper,  ending  with  the  declaration  of  the 
students  that  their  connection  with  the  college  had 
ceased,  was  handed  to  the  Senior  class  officer  that 
evening,  November  10.  It  was  a  dark  and  stormy 
night,  and  I  remember  that,  as  the  committee  passed 
my  house  carrying  the  paper  down  to  the  acting 
head  of  the  college,  they  raised  a  sort  of  exultant 
shout  that  seemed  to  intimate  that,  at  last  the  fac- 
ulty were  defeated  and  the  students  had  manfully 
maintained  their  rights. 

I  had  not  believed  in  the  possibility  of  success- 
fully enforcing  the  rules  as  worded,  and  although 
I  did  not  know  certainly,  I  had  reason  to  suppose 
that  the  meaning  of  the  shout  was  that  practically 
the  entire  college  woidd  be  absent  from  exercises 
the  next  day.  An  hour  later  the  majority  of  the 
professors  had  convened,  and  under  the  guidance  of 
Professor  Bas3om  a  brief  circular  was  prepared, 
containing  a  fair  statement  of  the  situation  for  pub- 
lication and  communication  to  the  parents.  The 
statement  contains  in  addition  to  the  rules  and  the 
two  sets  of  resolutions  by  the  students  the  f  ollo\ving 
paragraphs :  — 

"As  very  unusual  action  has  been  taken  by  the 
students  of  the  college,  we  have  deemed  it  desirable 
that  a  statement  of  the  occasion  of  that  action  be 
made  to  the  public. 

"  We  are  by  no  means  unqualified  in  our  support 
of  the  marking  system,  but  have  used  it  hitherto  as 


THE  REBELLION   OF  18G8.  89 

a  disciplinary  means  of  reachino-  young  men,  many 
of  whom  are  not  disposed  to  improve  their  oppor- 
tunities. One  form  of  neglect  has  long  embar- 
rassed us  and  limited  the  value  of  our  institution. 
Many  students  on  slight  and  insufficient  grounds 
have  been  repeatedly  and  protractedly  absent  from 
college  duties  and  thus  from  recitation,  much  of 
the  value  of  which  depends  on  consecutive  attend- 
ance." 

The  circular  then  recites  the  new  rule,  and  is 
followed  by  an  explanation  saying :  — 

"It  was  our  intention  in  all  cases,  in  which  the 
claim  was  just,  to  accept  cheerfully  the  labor  of 
extra  recitations,  and  to  allow  the  standing  of  the 
students  necessarily  absent  to  be  regained.  We 
deem  it,  however,  eminently  fair  that  absence  in 
other  cases  should  carry  wdth  it  the  ]3resumption  of 
ignorance  of  the  ground  passed  over,  rather  than 
the  opposite  presumption  of  knowledge,  and  that  it 
should  therefore  affect  the  standing  of  the  absen- 
tee." 

The  first  set  of  resolutions  adopted  by  the  stu- 
dents in  which  the  faculty  are  called  upon  to  annul 
the  rule  is  then  given  as  on  page  85,  and  the  fol- 
lowing comment  is  added :  — 

"Deeming  this  paper  objectionable  in  form  and 
spirit  and  also  embarrassed  in  our  action  by  the 
absence  of  President  Hopkins,  who  was  not  pres- 
ent at  the  passage  and  promulgation  of  the  law,  we 
declined  to  give  their  request  final  consideration 
before  his  return."     Then  the  additional  paper  con- 


90  MABK  HOPKINS. 

taining  the  declaration  by  the  students  that  their 
connection  with  the  college  had  ceased  is  given,  and 
the  circular  concludes  with  the  statement  that :  — 

"The  action  of  the  faculty  in  this  matter  has 
been  unanimous,  and  believing  that  far  more  im- 
portant issues  in  the  government  of  the  college  arc 
involved  than  those  relating  simply  to  the  mainte- 
nance and  wisdom  of  a  single  law,  we  submit  this 
statement  to  the  public." 

This  circular  was  signed  by  the  secretary  of  the 
faculty,  and  was  printed  and  mailed  November  11, 
the  day  after  the  students  withdrew,  to  all  the  lead- 
ing newspapers  in  New  York  and  Boston,  and  to 
the  father  of  each  student  concerned. 

The  circular  as  mailed  to  a  father  had  the  addi- 
tional statement  that  his  son  was  concerned  in  the 
action,  and  his  immediate  attention  was  invited  to 
the  son's  position. 

At  the  first  meeting  of  the  students  after  the  new 
rules  were  announced,  in  addition  to  the  resolutions 
calling  for  a  repeal  of  the  rules  a  series  of  resolu- 
tions was  passed  denunciatory  of  the  marking  sys- 
tem. There  can  be  no  doubt  that  some  of  the  lead- 
ers in  the  movement  believed  seriously  that  they 
were  engaged  in  action  of  great  significance  in  re- 
gard to  that  system.  They  expected  or  at  least 
hoped  to  effect  its  abolition  in  the  college,  and  that 
this  issue  would  result  in  a  new  order  of  things  in 
the  colleges  generally.  They  said:  "We  are  con- 
vinced that  the  system  of  marks  and  prizes  defeats 
the  end  for  which  it  was  established :  first,  by  call- 


THE   REBELLlOy    OF  180S.  91 

ing  the  mind  of  the  student  from  the  great  aim  of 
education  to  petty  and  selfish  amhition  for  honor, 
thus  destroying  the  very  germ  of  nranhood  whit-h  it 
is  the  aim  of  education  to  develop ;  second,  by  lead- 
ing those  desirous  of  maintaining  a  good  stand  to 
indulge  in  deceitful  practices  and  thus  essentially 
teaching  dishonesty,  when  it  should  be  the  aim  of 
education  to  teach  a  strict  morality."  And  it  was 
by  this  moral  enthusiasm  that  was  awakened  in  the 
minds  of  these  earnest  reformers  and  in  the  minds 
of  those  to  whom  they  unfolded  their  hopes  that 
so  many  were  led  into  the  rebellion.  There  were 
many,  doubtless,  to  whom  the  whole  movement  was 
a  great  lark ;  who  believed  that  where  the  most  em- 
inent students  and  Christians  of  the  college  were 
leading,  no  great  disaster  would  befall  those  follow- 
ing, and  who  joined  in  the  movement  with  a  sort 
of  cheerful  faith  that  some  pleasant  excitement 
would  result  from  it. 

The  next  morning  after  the  passage  of  the  reso- 
lutions of  withdrawal  there  w^ere  three  students  at 
prayers,  two  Freshmen  and  one  Senior.  It  was  my 
duty  to  hear  the  Freshman  class  recite,  and  after 
prayers  I  repaired  to  my  room  with  the  two  Fresh- 
man pupils,  and  went  through  the  lesson  as  usual. 
I  believe  the  Senior  had  no  instruction  that  morn- 
ing, and  the  recitation  with  two  Freshmen  was  not 
repeated.  The  college  came  to  a  perfect  standstill. 
Everything  was  quiet  about  the  town.  The  wea- 
ther was  ordinary  November  weather.  Some  who 
could  afford  it  enjoyed  driving;  many  resorted  to 


92  MABK  HOPKINS. 

the  halls  of  the  two  literary  societies  and  spent  the 
time  in  discussing  the  situation  and  playing*  cards. 
Every  word  from  a  professor  was  reported  among 
the  students.  Every  conversation  between  a  stu- 
dent and  a  professor  (and  there  were  many  of  them) 
was  repeated  in  its  details  among  the  professors. 
The  professors  were  the  more  anxious  party,  be- 
cause they  understood  more  fully  the  significance 
of  such  a  movement  and  the  far-reaching  conse- 
quences that  a  direct  antagonism  and  a  complete 
disregard  of  all  obligations  to  the  college  might 
have. 

Both  parties  awaited  President  Hopkins's  return 
with  interest.  The  students  undoubtedly  believed 
that  he  would  not  have  consented  to  such  a  rule. 
The  professors  felt  that  only  he  could  set  the  ma- 
chinery of  the  college  into  operation  again,  but  saw 
no  way  open  for  such  a  result  except  by  an  abso- 
lute submission  of  the  students. 

The  absence  of  Dr.  Hopkins  was  caused  by  his 
acceptance  of  an  invitation  to  preach  the  sermon 
on  the  quarter  century  anniversary  of  the  Society 
for  the  Promotion  of  Collegiate  and  Theological 
Education  at  the  West.  This  sermon  was  preached 
at  Marietta,  Ohio,  November  10,  the  day  of  the 
final  action  of  withdrawal  by  the  students. 

Probably  the  first  intelligence  that  Dr.  Hopkins 
received  of  the  fact  that  the  college  to  which  he 
had  given  as  president  thirty -two  years  of  most  la- 
borious toil  had  been  deserted  by  the  one  hundred 
and  sixty  students  whom  he  had  left  satisfactorily 


THE  REBELLION   OF  18G8.  93 

at  work  a  few  days  before,  was  the  announcement 
of  the  circukr  published  by  the  faculty.  It  could 
not  have  been  a  pleasant  surpj-ise.  He  returned  to 
Williamsto^vn  on  Saturday,  November  14,  after  an 
absence  of  nearly  two  weeks,  and  preached  Sunday 
morning  to  such  of  the  students  as  chose  to  come  to 
the  chapel.  That  must  have  been  an  anxious  Sun- 
day. It  is  impossible  now  to  recall  the  circum- 
stances without  admitting  that  his  position  was  most 
trying.  The  friends  of  some  of  the  students  had 
ap23eared  here,  and  many  of  the  absentees  had  re- 
ceived positive  orders  to  return  to  their  duties. 
The  combination  was  somewhat  weakened,  but  it 
still  presented  a  perfectly  solid  front,  and  no  exer- 
cises could  be  held  until  some  had  come  forward  to 
acknowledge  that  they  had  taken  a  wrong  position, 
and  were  ready  to  resume  their  places  as  loyal  stu- 
dents in  the  college.  Dr.  Hopkins,  whose  return, 
it  was  felt  by  all  parties,  must  in  some  way  contrib- 
ute to  a  solution  of  the  grave  and  difficult  problem 
existing,  invited  the  students  to  meet  him  in  the 
chapel  on  Monday  morning,  and  nearly  all  the  col- 
lege accepted  the  invitation. 

It  may  be  questioned  whether  he  ever  faced  an 
audience  more  intent  on  hearing  every  word  than 
that  which  was  gathered  in  the  college  chapel  on 
Monday  morning,  November  16,  1868.  Nor  can 
it  be  said  now  that  the  presentation  which  he  made 
of  the  situation  lacked  fairness,  or  candor,  or  sym- 
pathy. The  college  paper,  reporting  the  meeting, 
said  that  "he  spoke  in  behalf  of  the  faculty,  the 


94  MARK  HOPKINS. 

members  of  which  were  present."  As  I  remember 
the  address,  it  was  a  plain  statement  of  the  situa- 
tion. It  began  with  the  announcement  that  the 
position  taken  by  a  resohition  that  declared  the 
"connection  of  any  student  with  the  college  at  an 
end,  until  the  new  rule  was  repealed,"  was  not  ten- 
able ;  that  no  student  could  thus  dissolve  his  con- 
nection with  the  college.  He  then  proceeded  to 
show  that  when  a  student  was  dissatisfied  with  any 
arrangement  made  by  the  authorities  of  the  college 
or  any  rule  imposed,  the  only  way  of  withdrawing 
from  the  college  was  by  seeking  an  honorable  dis- 
mission, and  that  such  letters  would  be  given  to 
any  one  who,  after  a  return  to  duty,  should  ask  for 
a  letter  in  a  proper  way. 

Havins:  made  it  clear  that  the  students  who  had 
signed  the  paper  declaring  their  relations  to  the 
college  at  an  end  were  still  in  the  college  and  under 
its  government,  he  said  that  the  faculty  ruled  the 
institution,  and  must  rule  it,  and  that  any  combi- 
nation against  their  authority  was  inconsistent  with 
the  signing  of  the  pledge  at  the  time  of  matricula- 
tion. He  said  of  the  rule  that,  if  it  was  not  the 
best  rule  that  could  be  devised  for  the  regulation  of 
the  evil  arising  from  too  frequent  absences,  it  might 
be  repealed,  and  that  at  all  events  the  authorities 
of  the  college  wished  the  best  rule  possible;  one 
that  woidd  effectually  reduce  absence  and  be  per- 
fectly fair  in  enforcement.  The  address  did  not 
seem  to  effect  much  at  once,  but  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  any  presentation  could  have  been  loyal  to 


THE  REBELLION  OF  186S.  95 

the  authority  of  the  faculty  and  have  been  imme- 
diately effective.  The  college  paper  of  the  date  of 
Saturday,  November  21,  says  that  the  address  "did 
not  accomplish  much  except  the  part  which  inti- 
mated that  we  could  secure  letters  of  dismissal  upon 
our  return  to  duty."  The  address  was,  however,  an 
im2Dortant  element  in  altering  the  situation.  It  was 
made  clear  that  the  president  would  not  favor  any 
concession  to  the  students  inconsistent  with  the 
maintenance  of  the  authority  of  the  college,  and  at 
the  same  time  the  statement  that  the  authorities 
wished  the  best  rule  possible  gave  the  students  an 
opportunity  to  believe  that  reason  and  not  arbitrary 
will  would  finally  determine  the  exact  wording  of 
the  rule.  The  address  must  have  been  somewhat 
chilling  to  the  more  conscientious  students  who  had 
been  the  leaders  from  the  beginning.  It  doubtless 
enforced  strongly  in  the  minds  of  many  the  doubts 
that  had  arisen  in  respect  to  the  wisdom  of  their 
action. 

The  college  paper  adds  that  "In  the  afternoon 
matters  took  a  different  turn.  Dr.  Hopkins,  who 
has  the  affection  as  well  as  the  respect  of  every  one 
who  knows  him,  appeared  in  the  street  and  conversed 
freely  with  the  students.  He  said  that  the  law  did 
not  have  his  approval,  would  be  reconsidered,  and 
he  promised  to  use  his  influence  in  getting  the  rule 
changed  or  rescinded." 

This  statement  of  the  students'  paper  is  not 
perhaps  wholly  accurate,  but  it  was  perfectly  rea- 
sonable for  Dr.  Hopkins,  who  had  been  absent  when 


96  MARK  HOPKINS. 

the  law  was  passed,  to  state  that  he  did  not  approve 
of  the  wording  of  the  law.  This  statement  had 
doubtless  a  great  influence  on  the  minds  of  some. 
Other  influences  had  been  at  work,  and  some  af- 
fected by  personal  appeals,  made  by  friends  who 
came  on,  and  some  stirred  by  letters  from  parents, 
and  convinced  that  they  had  made  a  mistake  in 
their  action,  decided  to  go  back  to  their  college  du- 
ties at  the  four  o'clock  recitation.  The  rest,  I 
think  a  majority,  unwilling  to  be  left  in  the  more 
marked  attitude  of  insubordination  by  not  attend- 
ing the  exercises,  if  exercises  were  to  be  held  and 
others  were  to  attend,  agreed  to  return  to  duty 
"under  protest."  '  In  my  recitation  that  afternoon, 
which  was  for  the  Sophomore  class,  the  largest  in 
the  college,  many  answered  when  the  roll  was 
called,  "Here  under  protest."  When  this  was  re- 
ported to  Dr.  Hopkins  it  displeased  him  exceed- 
ingly. He  said  that  a  student  was  either  in  college 
or  out  of  college,  and  that  no  student  could  be  in 
college  "under  protest."  He  went  in  with  me  to 
my  class  the  next  afternoon,  and  made  some  forci- 
ble remarks  with  reference  to  the  matter  before 
the  roll  was  called,  giving  the  students  to  under- 
stand in  the  plainest  way  that  no  student  could 
remain  in  the  college  and  announce  "to  any  profes- 
sor in  the  class-room  that  he  was  here  under  pro- 
test." He  then  asked  me  to  call  the  roll,  and  it 
appeared  that  the  protestants  had  all  become  good 
catholics.  Nothing  more  was  heard  in  the  college 
exercises  about  attendance  under  protest.     The  rule 


THE  REBELLION   OF  U6S.  97 

was  afterwards  slightly  modified,  and  no  student 
left  the  college  in  consequence  of  disaffection  aris- 
ing from  the  adoption  of  the  rule. 

It  has  seemed  best  to  give  a  somewhat  minute 
account  of  this  rebellioii,  as  it  was  called,  because 
it  was  one  of  the  gravest  crises  in  Dr.  Ilo^^kins's 
administration  of  the  college,  and  because,  looked 
at  dispassionately  alter  the  lapse  of  many  j^ears, 
it  is  impossible  to  deny  to  him  the  honor  both  of 
great  wisdom  and  of  perfect  loyalty  to  his  faculty 
and  to  the  best  interests  of  the  institution  in  the 
entire  management  of  the  affair.  So  far  as  I  know 
he  never  uttered  in  public  one  w^ord  of  condem- 
nation of  the  precipitate  action  of  the  faculty,  or 
of  their  misreading  of  the  student  mind  in  the 
promidgation  of  this  rule  during  his  absence. 
With  heroic  patience  and  consummate  skill  he 
faced  the  difficulties  that  confronted  him.  The 
world  about  him  was  ignorant  of  vrhat  a  burden 
of  anxiety  he  carried  in  those  days.  A  few  ex- 
tended to  him  sympathy  and  kindly  help,  but  the 
loneliness  of  his  responsibility  on  learning  in  New 
York  that  the  college  exercises  had  been  suspended 
for  days,  and  the  intenser  consciousness  on  that 
Sunday  when  he  preached  to  the  few  who,  having 
declared  their  connection  with  the  college  at  an 
end,  chose  to  come  into  the  chapel  and  hear  him, 
that  he  alone  could  reknit  the  broken  threads  of 
college  life,  must  have  awakened  all  his  energies. 
For  meeting  such  an  emergency  his  great  powers 
and  solid  training  and  the  wisdom  learned  from 


98  MARK  HOPKINS. 

long  experience  and  shrewd  tact  were  all  needed. 
When  the  sun  went  down  on  Monday,  and  he 
knew  that  the  college,  after  five  days  of  interrup- 
tion, had  through  his  intervening  influence  once 
more  settled  down  to  work,  there  was  some  re- 
lief of  the  strain,  but  there  was  still  the  certainty 
present  that  weeks  and  months  must  elapse  before 
the  asperities  of  such  a  crisis  could  be  removed,  and 
that  it  must  depend  largely  on  those  whom  he  had 
selected  for  helpers,  and  who  had  precipitated  this 
crisis,  whether  similar  hostilities  might  not  recur. 
There  is  one  who  did  not  and  could  not  appreciate 
then  the  greatness  of  his  burdens  and  anxieties,  who 
would  pay  the  tribute  of  honest  admiration  and 
reverence  for  the  qualities  displayed  in  this  emer- 
gency. However  different  the  tendencies  which 
two  minds  may  represent,  what  candid  mind  is 
there  that  would  withhold  from  Dr.  Hopkins  un- 
stinted praise  for  his  conduct  in  this  delicate  and 
dangerous  crisis,  or  deny  tlie  calmness,  patience, 
tact,  wisdom,  and  manhood  that  established  peace 
between  the  widely  separated  faculty  and  students  ? 


THE  TEACHER. 


*'  Love  is  his  bond,  he  knows  no  other  fetter, 
Asks  not  our  all,  but  takes  whate'er  we  spare  him, 
Willing  to  draw  us  on  from  good  to  better. 

As  we  can  bear  him. 

"  When  he  comes  near  to  touch  us  and  to  bless  us, 
Prayer  is  so  sweet  that  hours  are  but  a  minute ; 
Mirth  is  so  pure,  though  freely  it  possess  us. 
Sin  is  not  in  it. 

*  *  Thus  he  conducts  by  holy  paths  and  pleasant 
Innocent  sovis,  and  sinful  souls  forgiven, 
Towards  the  bright  palace  where  our  God  is  present 

Throned  in  high  heaven." 
CARDiNAii  Newman,  St.  Philip  in  his  School. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

THE   TEACHER. 

After  Dr.  Hopkins  became  president  the  in- 
struction in  Intellectual  Philosophy  was  a  part, 
and  a  large  part,  of  his  duty.  He  used  as  a  text- 
book Stewart's  "Elements  of  Intellectual  Philos- 
ophy" for  twenty -five  years,  as  appears  from  the 
record  of  the  catalogues. 

With  the  class  of  1862  he  substituted  for  Stewart 
the  abridgment  of  Sir  William  Hamilton's  lec- 
tures on  Metapliysics.  He  was  not  wholly  satisfied 
with  this  book,  and  made  trial  of  various  other 
books  until  he  published  his  own,  "An  Outline 
Study  of  Man,"  in  1873. 

His  sympathies  were  with  the  Scottish  philoso- 
phy from  the  first.  He  was  trained  in  that  school, 
and  it  is  probable  that  he  made  a  greater  imjDres- 
sion  in  favor  of  the  ideas  rej^resented  by  this  phi- 
losophy than  any  other  thinker  America  has  pro- 
duced. Other  eminent  thinkers  have  had  larger 
classes  and  have  published  fuller  treatises  built 
upon  the  Scottish  ideas,  but  Dr.  Hopkins  had  the 
rare  faculty  of  interesting  the  dullest  mind  in  the 
laws  of  its  own  being  and  in  the  deep  questions 
which  the  study  of  philosophy  ojDens.     The  charac- 


102  MARK  HOPKINS. 

teristics  of  the  Scottish  school  were  in  accord  with 
his  own  habits  of  thought.     A  philosophy  based 
upon  careful  observation  was  the  only  philosophy 
that  could  appeal  to  him.     The  farthest  remove 
from  his  thought  was  the  speculative  or  dogmatic 
method.     Nothing  was  more  deeply  impressed  upon 
his  students  than  the  truth  that  facts  arrived  at  by 
careful  observation  are  and  must  be  the  beginning, 
and  must  guide  to  the  end  in  all  psychological  study. 
Self-consciousness  was  to  be  interrogated  on  every 
definite  question,  and  when  its  answer  was  clear 
and  distinct,   that  became  a  starting-point.     For 
every  individual  his  own  self -consciousness  should 
be  the  constant  "instrument  of  observation;  "  and 
what  self -consciousness  yielded  was  not  to  be  set 
aside.     He  believed  fully  in  the  universality  of 
mental  laws,  but  admitted  freely  that  on  certain 
points  the  more  cultivated  intelligence  would  give 
the   more   trustworthy    answer.     He    held   indeed 
that  it  was  possible  for  the  investigator  to  be  de- 
ceived in  regard  to  the  content  of  his  own  con- 
sciousness; to  mistake  an  inference  for  an  intui- 
tion, or  a  generalization  for  a  self-evident  regula- 
tive principle.      He  taught  too  that  much  might 
be  learned  from  the  habits  of  men,  and  from  lan- 
guage, but   the  first  and  final  instrument  in  the 
hands   of   a  clear  thinker  was   self -consciousness. 
So  he  says  in  the  introductory  lecture  on  Moral 
Science :  ^  — 

"If  a  man  cannot  know  what  he  is  conscious  of, 

^  Lectures  o?j  Moral  Science,  p.  27. 


THE  TEACHER.  103 

it  would  seem  that  he  cannot  know  anything.  And 
yet  the  whole  question  between  Reid  and  Hamilton 
on  the  one  side,  and  the  gi-eat  mass  of  i^hilosojihers 
on  the  other  resiDects  simjjly  the  fact  whether  there 
is  or  is  not  given  in  an  act  of  consciousness  both 
a  subject  and  an  object  that  are  not  in  the  last 
analysis  identical.  What  consciousness  testifies 
to  must  be  accepted.  This  all  allow.  Not  to 
do  it  woidd  be  suicidal  even  to  the  skeptic;  for 
he  would  bave  no  ground  for  affirming  that  he 
doubted.  The  only  question  is  what  it  is  that 
consciousness  gives.  If  we  say  that  it  does  give 
both  the  subject  and  the  object,  that  simj^le  affir- 
mation sweeps  away  in  a  moment  the  whole  basis 
of  the  ideal  and  skeptical  philosophy.  It  be- 
comes as  the  spear  of  Ithuriel,  and  its  simple 
touch  will  change  what  seemed  whole  continents 
of  solid  speculation  into  mere  banks  of  German 
fog." 

If  Dr.  Hopkins  affirmed  that  "all  allow  that 
what  consciousness  testifies  to  must  be  accepted," 
he  was  not  less  certain  that  the  actual  testimony  of 
consciousness  is  to  the  existence  of  certain  prin- 
ciples in  the  mind  prior  to  and  independent  of 
experience,  though  developed  in  experience.  His 
philosojDhy  rested  on  these  intuitional  principles, 
and  by  the  presence  and  power  of  these  principles 
he  taught  that  all  rational  thought  is  guided,  and 
that  by  their  help  all  rational  progress  is  made. 
Holding  to  an  immediate  knowledge  ^  of  the  external 

1  An  Outline  Study  of  Man,  p.  99. 


104  MARK  HOP KIXS, 

world  as  given  in  the  act  of  perception  under  the 
clear  light  of  these  principles 

"  that  shine  aloft  like  stars," 

his  philosophy  led  directly  to  the  fundamental  truth 
of  religion,  the  existence  of  a  supreme  personal 
reason  whose  thoughts  are  expressed  in  man,  na- 
ture, and  history.  The  pillars  on  which  his  faith 
rested  were  solid  because  pillars  of  reason. 

Hamilton's  doctrine  of  the  contradictory  alter- 
natives had  not  the  least  fascination  for  him.  He 
discerned  at  once  the  fallacy  underlying  the  two 
uses  of  the  term  "inconceivable,"  and  did  not  for 
an  instant  regard  the  delivery  of  consciousness  as 
inconsistent.  Kant's  antinomies  from  which  this 
doctrine  took  its  origin  were  antinomies  only  be- 
cause thesis  and  antithesis  were  applied  to  different 
objects  of  thought.  I  am  sure  none  of  the  more 
thouo^htful  members  of  the  class  with  which  he  first 
used  Hamilton  as  a  text-book  can  ever  forget  the 
calm  but  earnest  words  in  which  he  repudiated 
Hamilton's  statement  that  "faith  is  the  organ  by 
which  we  apprehend  what  is  beyond  our  know- 
ledge." Faith  to  him  was  the  trust  of  the  whole 
soul  reposed  in  a  person.  To  claim  that  faith  is 
an  "organ  "  or  a  "faculty  "  seemed  to  him  to  intro- 
duce utter  confusion  into  the  study  of  mind  and 
moral  relations.  Nothing  was  more  averse  to  his 
method,  and  as  he  felt  to  the  method  of  the  Scottish 
philosophy,  than  to  adopt  the  principle  that  the 
study  of  consciousness  leads  into  contradiction  or 
confusion,  which  faith  as  a  sort  of  deus  ex  macMna 


THE  TEACHER.  105 

should  disentangle.  This  would  be  like  discerning 
a  rainbow  on  a  sky  so  dense  with  clouds  that  no 
ray  of  sunlight  could  possibly  penetrate  them.  It 
was  not  often  that  he  interrupted  the  Socratic 
method  of  teaching  with  a  long  discourse.  But  on 
meeting  in  the  class-room  this  statement  by  Hamil- 
ton in  regard  to  faith,  he  spoke  in  refutation  of  it 
for  nearly  half  an  hour  in  his  own  masterly  way. 
It  was  perhaps  the  most  impressive  incident  of  my 
college  life.^ 

Undoubtedly  to  some  the  publication  of  "The 
Law  of  Love  "  seemed  to  mark  a  departure  from 
the  old  Scottish  philosophy.  But  it  was  a  depar- 
ture only  from  the  later  Scottish  writers  on  the 
nature  of  the  idea  of  right.  The  Scottish  philoso- 
phers generally  believed  in  right  as  an  intuitive 
idea.  Dr.  Hopkins  believed  in  rights  and  obliga- 
tions as  primitive  ideas,  not  in  right.  He  held 
that  "  We  are  never  under  obligation  to  do  an  act 
as  morally  right  for  which  there  is  not  a  reason  in 
some  good  besides  its  being  right  and  on  account 
of  which  it  is  right."  This  doctrine,  so  closely  con- 
nected with  the  philosophy  of  ends,  was  the  result 
of  long  and  patient  study.  He  was  indeed  a  "  self- 
contained"  thinker,  and  his  promulgation  of  this 
doctrine,  which  he  did  not  derive  from  any  wide 
reading,  but  from  the  faithful  use  of  self -conscious- 

1  The  discussion  of  this  point,  which  was  given  to  tlie  class  of 
1862  in  an  informal  way,  is  presented  with  great  clearness  and 
fullness  in  the  second  lecture  on  the  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man,  with 
special  criticism  of  certain  expressions  made  by  Professor  Calder- 
wood  in  his  Philosophy  of  the  Infinite. 


106  MARK  HOPKINS. 

ness,  from  profound  examination  of  the  moral  con- 
stitution of  man,  showed  his  perfect  independence. 
But  the  philosophy  remained  essentially  Scottish, 
and  probably  this  departure  from  the  views  of 
Stewart  did  not  lessen,  but  rather  promoted  the 
influence  of  these  ideas  in  this  country. 

The  Scottish  philosophy  has  been  called  the 
philosophy  of  "  common  sense."  This  phrase, 
which  had  been  employed  before  Reid,  caused  a 
good  deal  of  discussion  relating  to  Eeid's  usage  of 
it.  Dr.  McCosh  has  pointed  out  the  ambiguity 
of  the  phrase.  If  used  with  the  meaning  of  good, 
practical  sense,  it  cannot  have  high  authority  in 
philosophy.  It  has  always  been  in  the  name  of 
common  sense  that  new  discoveries  and  theories 
arising  from  them  have  been  resisted,  and  w^hatever 
worth  we  assign  it  in  practical  affairs,  it  must  not 
be  exalted  to  the  disparagement  of  mathematical 
demonstrations  or  the  inductive  proof  that  certain 
long-established  opinions  are  incorrect.  In  the 
other  sense  of  original  principles  in  the  mind  it 
comes  very  close  to  the  chosen  instrument  of  the 
Scottish  philosophy.  The  difference  between  what 
consciousness  delivers  to  the  closest,  most  care- 
ful observer  and  thinker  and  what  the  ordinary 
man  accepts  as  the  dictates  of  common  sense  will  be 
found  to  be  very  great.  There  may  be,  therefore, 
little  attractiveness  in  such  a  term  as  "common- 
sense  philosophy  "  for  the  philosopher  who  knows 
how  far  removed  uneducated  judgments  are  from 
necessary,  and  how  deep  and  embracing  the  mys- 


THE    TEACHER.  107 

tery  is  that  envelops  the  simplest  mental  opera- 
tions. But  it  cannot  be  denied  that  Dr.  Hopkins, 
who  expressed  his  philosophical  thoughts  in  simple 
language,  and  had  small  patience  with  pretentious 
terms,  and  turned  away  with  positive  aversion^ 
from  those  definitions  and  phrases  which  have  been 
invented  with  elaborate  abstractions  in  order  to 
eliminate  all  trace  of  personal  intelligence  behind 
nature,  seemed  in  his  teaching  to  present  his  phi- 
losophy as  a  sovereign  common  sense.  Difficult 
problems  were  not  avoided,  but  were  made  simple, 
and  however  the  student  ambitious  of  wide  learn- 
ing in  philosophy  may  be  inclined  to  look  upon  his 
text-book  as  a  mere  primer,  it  may  be  safely  as- 
serted that  for  the  general  purposes  of  a  liberal 
education,  for  the  opening  of  the  average  mind 
into  the  secrets  of  its  own  being,  no  better  hand- 
book has  been  written  than  ''An  Outline  Study  of 
Man,"  published  in  1873. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  for  the  reader  of  the 
book  to  get  any  idea  of  the  power  of  the  teaching 
that  accompanied  its  use;  of  the  cautious,  sugges- 
tive way  in  which  each  topic  was  opened;  of  the 
subtle  and  yet  genial  path  by  which  the  unwary 
student  who  had  made  some  rash  statement  was  led 
to  retract  it;  of  the  broad  light  which  long  experi- 
ence with  young  men  and  long  study  o£  their  differ- 
ences made  it  possible  for  the  teacher  to  throw  over 
a  difficult  question  so  that  the  student  seemed  to 
himself  to  master  the  difficulty.     An  acute  thinker, 

^  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man,  p.  53. 


108  MARK  HOPKIXS. 

a  graduate  of  one  of  our  best  universities,  who  had 
followed  the  required  course  in  philosophy  under 
a  distinouished  scholar  in  his  own  student  life  with 
interest,  after  attending  one  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  ex- 
aminations remarked,  as  he  came  out :  "  There  was 
more  teaching  in  that  single  exercise  than  in  all  the 
exercises  in  philosophy  that  I  attended  when  in 
college." 

The  atmosphere  of  a  class-room  is  a  subtle, 
hardly  describable  thing.  It  is  determined  by  the 
wisdom  and  the  power  of  the  teacher  and  the  dili- 
gence and  receptivity  of  the  pupils.  The  elements 
contributed  by  the  teacher  gain  in  richness  with 
each  receding  year  up  to  a  certain  point  in  the 
life.  The  materials  in  the  pupils  vary  from  year 
to  year,  according  to  previous  training  and  native 
endowments.  Very  bright  students  may  have  had 
little  severe  training,  may  have  grown  up  in  ener- 
vating surroundings,  and  yet  have  slipped  through 
the  examinations  of  the  earlier  years.  These  will 
be  likely  to  contribute  pride  and  indocility,  restless- 
ness and  reluctance,  to  the  influences  affecting  those 
whom  the  teacher  of  a  Senior  class  has  to  lead  into 
the  study  of  the  profound  questions  of  philosophy. 

Dr.  Hopkins  was  accustomed  to  give  early  in 
the  first  term  of  the  year  an  hour  each  day  for  a 
week  or  more  to  the  instruction  of  the  Freshman 
class  in  the  laws  of  health.  He  used  as  a  text-book 
Combe's  "Health  and  Mental  Education,"  but  en- 
riched the  instruction  with  the  stores  of  knowledge 
accumulated  by  his  own  studies.    By  giving  this  in- 


THE  TEACHER.  109 

striiction  he  gained  a  closer  knowledge  of  each  stu- 
dent from  the  beginning  of  his  course,  and  an  im- 
pression was  thus  made  in  the  minds  of  some  that 
prepared  the  way  for  a  strong  personal  influence. 

There  has  been  an  opinion  that  the  students 
of  Williams  College  were,  during  Dr.  Hopkins's 
administration,  largely  of  the  maturer,  seK-support- 
ing,  earnest  tyjies.  There  were  many  such,  and 
he  fidly  understood  that  they  were  likely  to  reflect 
great  honor  upon  the  college.  He  answered  their 
letters  when  writing  in  advance  to  state  their  needs 
with  patient  minuteness  and  kindest  promises. 
For  while  he  walked  with  stately  steps  along  the 
flaming  bulwarks  of  the  universe,  he  bent  kindly 
down  to  recognize  the  upward  movement  of  the 
humblest  being  those  bulwarks  were  erected  to  de- 
fend. 

But  there  were  many  young  men  under  his  guid- 
ance in  the  years  when  I  knew  the  college  who  be- 
longed to  families  where  abundance,  not  to  say  lux- 
ury existed.  Many  such  were  sent  to  the  college 
in  the  belief  that  its  remoteness  from  city  life 
would  guarantee  freedom  from  certain  temptations. 
Some  of  these  came  to  the  college  against  their  will. 
A  few  were  never  reconciled  to  the  quiet  "monas- 
tic "  life,  as  they  termed  it,  and  in  every  class  ele- 
ments of  the  most  diverse  character  were  found. 
Generally  these  elements  were  fused  into  more  or 
less  unity  by  Dr.  Hopkins's  instruction,  but  each 
succeeding  class  presented  new  and  difficult  varie- 
ties of  the  genus  student. 


110  MARK  HOPKINS. 

It  was  in  no  small  degree  dealing  with  these  dif- 
ficult cases  and  teaching  them  to  think  that  added 
each  year  increase  to  his  power.  His  form  so 
large  and  massive,  his  keen,  kind  eye,  his  persua- 
sive voice,  however  littla  appreciated  in  their  dis- 
tinctiveness, were,  when  taken  together,  of  great 
advantage  in  his  first  relations  with  pupils.  The 
increasing  calmness  and  benignity  of  advancing 
years  added  also  with  each  new  year  impressiveness 
to  his  presence  and  words. 

"  We  see  thee  standing-  there, 
The  tall  form  gravely  bent : 
The  thin  and  silvery  hair 
O'er  the  lordly  dome  besprent ; 
The  keen  uplifted  g-lance  : 
The  long  arm's  curving-  sweep : 
The  serious  countenance 
Where  the  merry  twinkles  sleep  : 

"  We  hear  thee  speaking  now, 
Each  weighty  word  well  weighed  — 
Simple  and  clear  and  slow  — 
No  rattling  fanfaronade 
Of  words,  but  a  master's  thought, 
Untainted  by  sneers  or  gibes, 
Like  His  who  the  people  taught 
With  authority,  not  as  the  scribes."  ^ 

A  faitliful  record  of  the  brighter  sayings  of  the 
teacher  and  pupils  in  Dr.  Hopkins's  room  for  a 
single  year  would  be  an  instructive  revelation  of 
his  power.  No  such  record  exists,  and  the  un- 
derstanding of  his  eminence  as  a  teacher  must  be 

1  Rev.  Dr.  Washington  Gladden's  poem  at  the  Williams  alumni 
dinner,  June  20,  1887. 


THE    TEACHER.  Ill 

far  inferior  to  what  such  a  record  for  the  fifty-six 
years  of  his  instruction  would  give. 

His  skill  in  answering  questions  was  not  inferior 
to  his  skill  in  asking  them.  His  own  enjoyment 
of  his  sallies  and  of  the  effect  which  they  produced 
on  the  class  was  perfectly  unrestrained  and  natural, 
and  seemed  to  bring  him  into  closer  sympathy  with 
his  students.  But  there  was  never  the  slightest 
sacrifice  of  dignity,  or  loss  of  control.  He  would 
sometimes  tell  an  old  story,  but  however  old  it 
was,  it  always  had  a  sharp  application.  Very  few 
reminiscences  of  his  quick  perception  or  ready  wit 
have  been  preserved. 

It  was  his  custom,  as  has  been  already  said,  to 
begin  the  instruction  of  the  Senior  year  wdth  Anat- 
omy and  Physiology,  to  form  the  base  of  the  pyra- 
mid to  which  he  likened  the  studies  which  he  taught. 
Upon  that  base  of  man  in  his  physical  nature  was 
raised  the  structure  of  the  intellectual  and  moral 
and  religious  studies.  It  was  man  as  a  whole  that 
occupied  his  time  for  nine  hours  each  week  during 
most  of  the  Senior  year  when  I  was  a  student. 

I  remember  that  one  of  our  brightest  men  was 
once  questioned  in  regard  to  the  sensitiveness  of  the 
patient  during  the  amputation  of  a  leg.  He  was 
asked  if  he  supposed  that  any  pain  was  felt  from 
the  cutting  of  the  bone.  He  replied  that  he  had 
always  supposed  that  there  was.  "And  the  most 
acute  pain  when  the  knife  goes  through  the  mar- 
row?" interrogated  the  president.  "Yes,  sir," 
was  the  reply.      "Well,  there   is  no  sensitiveness 


112  MARK  HOPKINS. 

whatever  in  either  of  these  two  formations,"  an- 
swered the  president.  I  remember  thinking  at  the 
time  that  perhaps  the  leading  question  was  mis- 
leading, but  the  lesson  was  taught  that  we  were  not 
to  have  an  opinion  on  a  question  of  fact  unless  we 
had  data  for  the  opinion. 

One  of  the  keenest  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  retorts  was 
made  when  he  was  nearly  seventy  years  of  age. 
The  distinction  between  man  and  the  lower  animals 
was  a  favorite  subject  of  discussion  with  him,  as  it 
was  of  the  earlier  Scottish  philosophers.  The  point 
had  been  made  that  man  is  the  only  animal  that 
laughs.  "As  he  alone  laughs,  so  I  think  he  alone 
has  the  perception  and  feeling  involved  in  that."^ 
A  student  who  had  j^erhaps  more  personal  acquaint- 
ance with  dogs  than  the  president  raised  his  hand 
on  hearing  this  statement  and  said:  "Dr.  Hop- 
kins, I  have  a  little  dog  at  home.  When  I  am 
there,  he  sometimes  runs  up  to  me  and  puts  his 
forepaws  on  my  knees,  and  looks  up  into  my  face, 
and  I  really  think  he  laughs."  Dr.  Hopkins 
turned  and  looked  at  his  pupil  and  replied:  "When 
a  man  laughs,  he  generally  laughs  at  something. 
What  do  you  suppose  your  dog  was  laughing  at?  " 

When  I  entered  the  Junior  class  in  Williams 
College  in  the  autumn  of  1860,  Dr.  Hopkins  was 
fifty-eight  years  old.  He  was  then  in  the  zenith 
of  his  powers.  His  hair  was  already  somewhat 
whitened,  and  was  mostly  gone  from  the  high  crown 
of  his  head.     The  occasions   when  I  used   to  see 

^  An  Outline  Study  of  Man,  p.  11. 


THE  TEACHER.  113 

him  were  the  Sunday  morning  preaching  service  in 
the  chapel,  which  he  conducted,  and  the  daily  even- 
ing prayer.  It  is  of  the  latter  service  that  my  rec- 
ollections are  most  distinct.  There  was  a  rever- 
ence and  a  dignity  in  his  conduct  of  the  service 
that  greatly  impressed  me.  The  Scriptures  seemed 
to  him  to  be  such  a  reality ;  to  open  such  direct 
communication  between  him  and  the  Supreme  Be- 
ing, and  there  was  such  an  uplifting  power  in  his 
prayers  that  admiration  was  from  the  first  kindled 
within  me  for  his  lofty  personality.  The  silvery 
touch  of  age  had  not  diminished  the  strength  of 
manhood,  but  had  added  a  soft  beauty  to  the  lines 
of  power.  The  form  was  bent  a  little,  but  the 
strong  definite  features  indicated  a  marked  individ- 
uality. Up  to  that  time  no  teacher,  although  I 
had  been  fortunate  enough  in  different  institutions 
to  attend  prayers  conducted  by  eminent  men,  had 
ever  impressed  me  in  the  same  way.  Several  mem- 
bers of  my  class,  which  had  a  large  number  of 
well-trained  and  refined  minds,  used  to  speak  to- 
gether of  these  exercises.  Evening  prayers  were 
not  irksome  to  some  of  us,  and  are  remembered  still 
with  affectionate  gratitude.  In  any  reasonable 
estimate  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  influence  on  college 
students,  I  think  the  evening  prayers  must  have  a 
place. 

One  of  his  most  distinguished  pupils  writes :  — 
"  His  conduct  of  evening  prayers  was  very  nearly 
his  greatest  service  to  the  students,  if  I  may  juc^ge 
others  bv  myself.      I  shall  never  forget  his  reading 


114  MARK  HOPKINS.  . 

of  the  fifteenth  chapter  of  the  First  Epistle  to  the 
Corinthians  one  hot  summer  afternoon,  just  after 
we  had  been  discussing  in  his  recitation-room  But- 
ler's chapter  in  which  he  touches  upon  immortality. 
As  he  read  the  words :  '  When  this  corruptible  shall 
have  put  on  incorruption  and  this  mort?J  shall  have 
put  on  immortality,'  his  utterance  of  the  word  im- 
mortality was  absolutely  sublime." 

He  was  particularly  fond  of  those  lofty  passages 
in  Isaiah  which  treat  of  God's  majesty,  and  some 
of  those  noblest  verses  always  carry  me  back  to 
my  seat  in  the  chapel  that  first  year  in  Williams 
College. 

His  sermons  Sunday  mornings  were  for  the  most 
part  on  doctrinal  theology,  and  were  the  outline  of 
a  system.  These  were  always  clear  and  cogent,  and 
sometimes  eloquent.  It  is  probable  that  the  occa- 
sional repetition  of  a  noble  strain  of  prophecy  in 
the  sermons  had  something  to  do  with  the  perma- 
nent association  in  my  mind  of  the  sublime  lan- 
guage of  Isaiah  with  his  ministrations  in  the  col- 
lege pulpit.  In  the  lectures  by  Dr.  Hopkins  on 
the  ''Evidences  of  Christianity,"  which  was  one  of 
my  text-books  the  first  term  of  my  student  life  at 
Williams,  reverential  words  from  Isaiah  are  also 
now  and  then  quoted,  and  I  cannot  but  feel  surprise 
now,  as  I  look  back  and  note  how  largely  my  first 
term  of  study  in  the  college  was  stamped  by  the 
influence  of  his  mind,  and  how  very  largely  not 
merely  religious,  but  also  Scriptural  that  influence 
was.     Certainly  I  did  not  then  realize  how  perva- 


THE  TEACHER.  115 

sive  in  the  atmosphere  his  thought  was,  but  I  see 
now  that  the  permanent  impression  of  that  first 
term,  the  opening  of  my  mind  to  the  sublimity  of 
God's  government  as  seen  both  in  nature  and  the 
Scriptures,  was  the  work  of  this  one  man.  Many 
men,  as  boys  more  thoughtless  than  J  was,  must 
have  since  been  awakened  to  the  fact  that  Dr. 
Hopkins's  influence  was  the  constant  environment. 
I  am  sure  that,  whether  they  confess  it  or  not,  his 
noble  reverence  for  God  and  his  Holy  Word  has 
been  an  effective  power  in  keeping  the  look  of  the 
graduates  of  this  college  directed  to  the  higher  and 
better  things  that  concern  us,  or,  if  I  may  use  lan- 
guage of  which  he  was  so  fond,  "to  the  everlasting 
hills  from  whence  cometh  our  help." 

It  seems  altogether  fitting  that  this  chapter 
should  contain  extracts  from  various  letters  written 
by  Dr.  Hopkins's  pupils,  conveying  their  testimony 
to  the  influence  exerted  upon  their  lives  by  his 
teaching.  From  the  great  number  of  such  letters 
which  Vv^ere  found  among  his  papers  only  a  few 
extracts  can  be  given. 

Israel  W.  Andrews,  a  member  of  the  first  Sen- 
ior class,  that  of  1837,  which  came  under  Dr. 
Hopkins's  tuition  as  president,  writes  from  Lee, 
where  he  was  teaching,  October  9,  1838 :  — 

"It  is  my  intention  to  devote  the  little  leisure 
time  I  have  to  theological  studies,  and  I  should  be 
much  gratified  if  you  would  advise  me  respecting 
the  course.  Conscious  that  I  have  received  more 
instruction  (in  Whately's  sense)  from  yourself  than 


116  MARK  HOPKINS. 

from  any  other  one,  I  know  of  no  one  to  whom  I 
could  better  apply  for  instruction." 

Mr.  Andrews,  who  had  a  distinguished  career  as 
a  teacher,  chiefly  in  Marietta  College,  where,  after 
having  been  tutor  and  professor  of  various  subjects, 
he  became  finally  a  succesful  president,  was  deputed 
by  the  Williams  men  in  attendance  at  the  National 
Educational  Association  in  Topeka,  Kansas,  in 
1886,  to  convey  congratidations  and  kind  remem- 
brances to  Dr.  Hopkins.     He  writes :  — 

"I  am  sure  no  one  of  those  present  at  Topeka, 
and  I  may  say  no  one  of  all  the  alumni  of  Wil- 
liams, can  cherish  a  profounder  respect  or  warmer 
love  for  yourself  than  do  I.  As  General  Garfield 
said  at  the  inauguration  of  President  Chadbourne, 
'Dr.  Hopkins  will  always  be  our  president.'  No 
one  has  greater  cause  of  gratitude  to  you  than  my- 
self, and  if  I  have  been  of  service  in  any  degree  as 
an  educator,  it  is  because  of  your  instructions  and 
of  your  recommendation  of  me  to  my  field  of  labor." 

Two  letters  written  on  the  same  day,  June  6, 
1859,  one  from  the  Andover  Theological  Seminary 
by  a  graduate  preparing  for  missionary  work  in 
India,  and  the  other  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Corwin,  then 
pastor  of  a  church  in  Honolulu,  are  a  striking  evi- 
dence of  grateful  appreciation  of  his  inspiration  to 
the  noblest  life. 

The  letter  from  Rev.  Dr.  Corwin  begins  with 
these  words :  — 

"Your  kind  note  with  many  others  reached  me 
as  a  most  acceptable  New  Year's  present  on  the 


THE  TEACHER.  117 

morning  of  the  1st,  and  nothing  coukl  have  been 
more  acceptable  than  its  familiar,  cordial  tone, 
which  left  me  no  room  to  doubt  that  I  was  very 
kindly  remembered  by  one  who  has  done  more  to 
shape  my  destiny  than  any  other  man. 

"  Senior  year  was  to  me  the  butt  end  of  the  col- 
lege course.  It  was  a  time  when  I  could  feel  my- 
seK  grow.  The  studies  of  the  first  three  years  were 
for  the  most  part  pursued  from  a  sense  of  duty. 
Senior  studies  were  a  pursuit  of  pleasure." 

The  other  letter  was  written  by  David  C.  Scud- 
der,  of  the  class  of  1855,  whose  brief  life  as  a 
missionary  has  been  told  by  his  brother  Horace : 
"I  write  to  request  you  to  forward  to  the  Mission 
House  at  Boston  a  testimonial  respecting  my  fitness 
to  become  a  missionary.  I  cannot  let  tliis  occa- 
sion pass  without  expressing  my  thankfulness  to 
God  that  he  sent  me  to  Williams.  I  knew  nothing 
of  the  college  when  I  entered,  except  that  a  friend 
of  mine  had  been  converted  there  a  year  before, 
and  I  wished  to  be  converted  also,  and  therefore 
went.  During  my  second  term,  through  the  kind 
attention  of  Professor  H.,  I  was  induced  to  con- 
sider the  subject  of  religion.  I  did  so,  and  as 
with  me  becoming  a  Christian  and  becoming  a  for- 
eign missionary  were  one  and  the  same  thing,  com- 
mitting myseK  to  Christ,  I  also  committed  myseK 
to  his  service  abroad.  I  shall  ever  look  back  to 
my  college  life  with  pleasure  and  yet  with  regret. 
.  .  .  But  I  feel  peculiar  regret,  when  I  think  how 
poorly  I  appreciated  the  studies  of  Senior  year. 


118  MABK  HOPKINS. 

"Still,  though  I  accomplished  so  little,  I  shall 
always  be  thankful,  as  every  other  pupil  is,  that 
I  was  brought  under  your  tuition.  If  I  learned 
nothing  from  your  words,  I  did  much  from  your 
example;  and  although  I  never  was  reprimanded 
that  I  remember,  a  look  which  I  thought  was  in- 
tended for  me  has  often  recurred  to  me  when 
tempted  to  live  at  ease. 

"I  hope,  sir,  that  you  will  excuse  these  perhaps 
to  you  foolish  words,  for  I  felt  that  I  could  not 
refrain  from  expressing  though  in  crude  language 
my  esteem  for  your  instructions,  my  admiration 
of  your  example,  and  my  affection  for  yourself." 

A  distinguished  clergyman,  whose  name  would 
at  once  suggest  very  great  services  to  the  church, 
wrote  to  Dr.  Hopkins  from  Bennington  in  1851  as 
follows :  — 

"And  let  me  speak  of  one  more  instance  of 
kindness  on  your  part,  my  dear  sir,  among  the 
many,  as  one  for  which  I  am  deeply  grateful,  and 
one  that  has,  I  hope,  had  its  influence  for  good  for- 
ever upon  me.  You  once  addressed  words  on  the 
subject  of  religion,  to  me,  when  I  called  on  an- 
other errand  at  your  study.  You  were  not  dis- 
pleased or  wearied  when  I  told  you  of  my  doubts 
and  troubles,  but  conversed  wdth  me  till  half  my 
load  was  gone.  And  as  we  went  together  to  your 
evening  meeting,  by  some  strange  coincidence,  or 
in  kindness,  you  took  up  the  course  of  our  con- 
versation in  your  lecture  just  where  we  left  it. 
Never  did  all  seem  so  clear  to  me  as  you  made  it 


THE  TEACHER.  119 

that  night.  I  found  those  same  thoughts  always 
in  my  mind,  whenever  I  recurred  to  the  subject. 
And  a  few  months  afterward,  when  I  hoped  I  had 
found  peace  in  believing,  and  a  change  in  intention, 
in  hoi^e,  and  in  feeling  had  come  over  my  life,  I 
traced  many  of  the  influences  that  pressed  most 
earnestly  upon  me  to  the  words  you  gave  me  that 
night.  I  have  often  wanted  to  tell  you  of  this, 
sir,  but  I  never  have  had  the  opportunity  till  now. 
You  have  probably  forgotten  it  all  long  since,  but 
it  is  among  my  most  cherished  and  most  holy  re- 
membrances. Why  I  never  became  a  Christian 
in  the  midst  of  all  the  religious  association  that 
gathered  around  me  in  Williams  College  I  cannot 
now  understand.  But  to  yourself  and  your  sin- 
cerely respected  brother,  Professor  Hoj^kins,  who 
one  time  also  almost  kindled  me  to  life,  do  I  trace 
influences  which  under  the  power  of  God,  as  I 
hope,  afterwards,  brought  me  out  into  the  light  of 
his  truth,  and  which  now  give  me  life  and  hope 
and  joy  in  believing." 

Titus  Munson  Coan,  the  well-known  writer  of 
the  class  of  1859,  sent  in  1881  a  warmly  appreci- 
ative letter,  of  which  these  words  are  most  interest- 
ing:— 

"  I  have  long  meant  to  tell  you  with  what  plea- 
sure I  remember  my  Senior  year,  1859.  It  gave 
me  the  impulse  to  the  life  of  study  which  I  have 
lived  for  the  most  part  since  then;  and  I  look 
back  to  the  little  country  town  and  to  your  class- 
room in  the  old  chapel  as  to  a  spring  of  intellec- 


120  MARK  HOPKINS. 

tual  and  moral  energy.  Those  were  formative  days, 
and  second  only  in  importance  to  those  of  the  ear- 
lier life  at  home,  and  I  hoped  to  thank  you  for 
them  this  simnner  by  word  of  mouth." 

In  the  later  years  of  his  life  few  class  meetings 
occurred  at  which  his  service  not  merely  to  the 
world  at  large,  but  in  the  training  of  individual 
lives,  was  not  discussed,  and  often  the  pleasantest 
words  of  grateful  recognition  were  conveyed  from 
such  meetings  to  "him.  In  1883  the  class  of  1863, 
of  which  twenty-two  members  were  present,  adopted 
these  resolutions:^ — 

"On  this  the  twentieth  anniversary  of  our  grad- 
uation the  undersigned,  members  of  the  class  of 
1863,  extend  to  the  venerable  and  beloved  Presi- 
dent Hopkins  our  warmest  greetings ! 

"  Having  tested  the  value  of  his  instructions  dur- 
ing a  score  of  years  in  various  spheres  of  thought 
and  of  action,  and  havijig  found  them,  under  all 
circumstances,  helpful  for  guidance  and  for  inspi- 
ration, of  immense  worth  in  the  working  out  of  our 
career  and  the  moulding  of  character  and  life,  we 
come  back  and  lay  at  his  feet  the  tribute  of  our 
gratitude  and  affection. 

"We  rejoice  in  his  convalescence,  and  cherish 
the  hope  that  his  precious  life  may  long  be  spared 
to  the  college  which  his  name  has  made  illustri- 
ous." 

The  following  letter  from  Rev.  Dr.  Gladden, 
of  Columbus,  Ohio,  is  another  testimony  to  the 
value  of  his  teaching :  — 


THE  TEACHER.  121 

Columbus,  Ftbruary  5,  1884. 

My  dear  Sir,  —  I  have  asked  my  publisher  to  send 
you  a  volume  of  sermons,  which  I  beg  you  to  accept  with 
my  grateful  remembrance. 

It  would  be  quite  unfair  to  hold  you  responsible  for 
the  doctrines  taught  —  (though  I  strongly  hope  that  you 
will  find  in  these  far  more  to  approve  than  to  condemn) 
—  but  if  there  is  anything  of  skill  or  success  in  the 
methods  of  presenting  truth,  or  anything  of  philosoph- 
ical breadth  and  candor  in  the  manner  of  dealing  with 
it  —  these  qualities  are  largely  due,  I  am  sure,  to  im- 
pressions made  on  my  mind  when  in  your  classes,  twenty- 
five  years  ago. 

General  S.  C.  Armstrong,  whose  work  for  the 
negroes  and  Indians  at  Hampton,  Virginia,  has 
been  so  eminently  conducive  to  the  welfare  both  of 
his  pupils  and  through  these  of  our  country,  gives 
this  testimony  not  in  a  letter,  but  in  his  "Twenty- 
two  Years'  Work  of  Hampton  Normal  and  Agri- 
cultural Institute:"  "Let  me  say  here  that  what- 
ever good  teaching  I  may  have  done  has  been  Mark 
Hopkins  teaching  through  me." 

Professor  William  D.  Whitney,  of  Yale  Univer- 
sity, writes  in  the  preface  to  the  "Forty  Years' 
Eecord  of  the  Class  of  1845 :  "  — 

"It  remains  only  to  speak  of  our  venerable  and 
venerated  president,  Mark  Hopkins.  We  had 
from  him,  even  during  our  Freshman  year,  a  few 
lectures  on  anatomy  illustrated  by  the  manikin; 
then  during  Senior  year  he  was  almost  the  only  one 
with  whom  we  had  to  do.     Senior  year  was  the  time 


122  MAEK  HOPKINS. 

looked  forward  to  with  eager  anticipation  all  the 
way  through  college,  as  giving  us  the  privilege  of 
his  instruction,  and  on  that  account  '  ooino-  to  be 
worth  all  the  rest  of  the  course, '  as  it  used  to  be 
said ;  and  like  other  classes  before  and  after  us  we 
were  not  disappointed.  Eeferences  here  and  there 
in  the  biographies  will  show  how  strongly  he  im- 
pressed us." 

In  the  autumn  of  1883  an  effort  was  made  to 
raise  825,000  toward  the  endowment  of  the  college 
pastorate,  to  which  the  Eev.  John  H.  Denison  of 
the  class  of  1882,  a  son-in-law  of  Dr.  Hopkins,  had 
been  appointed.  The  professor  was  to  be  called 
the  "Mark  Hopkins  Professor  of  Divinity."  On 
the  occurrence  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  birthday,  Feb- 
ruary 4,  1884,  the  money  had  been  raised.  I 
was  not  able  to  attend  the  campany  given  at  Dr. 
Hopkins's  house,  but  sent  a  letter  containing  the 
announcement  that  the  professorship  was  secured. 
The  letter  was  read  aloud  to  the  company  by  the 
Eev.  Edward  H.  Griffin,  D.  D.,  then  Professor 
of  Ehetoric  in  Williams  College,  now  Professor  of 
the  History  of  Philosophy  in  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University.  From  this  letter  a  few  sentences  are 
given :  — 

"More  fortunate  than  Woolsey  in  still  imparting 
order  and  life  to  expanding  minds ;  more  fortunate 
than  McCosh  in  being  relieved  from  the  pressing 
responsibility  of  executive  details,  long  may  you 
live  to  continue  to  open  to  us  all  the  deep  lessons 
of  patience,  benignity,  and  serene  faith  ! 


THE  TEACHER.  123 

"  It  is  now  over  fifty  years  since  you  became  pro- 
fessor in  this  college.  Griffin,  Denison  and  I, 
members  of  the  class  of  18G2,  were  not  born  when 
you  became  president  in  1836.  Through  all  these 
years  you  have  watched  and  nourished  and  loved 
this  college. 

"  You  cherish,  I  am  sure,  no  desire  that  it  should 
become  a  university  or  even  a  great  college,  but  I 
believe  that  you  cordially  sympathize  with  its  pres- 
ent self-denying,  harmonious  officers  (not  less  self- 
denying,  nor  less  harmonious,  nor  less  able  than  any 
body  that  has  preceded  them  here)  in  their  efforts 
to  make  this  the  best  college  of  its  size  in  New  Eng- 
land ;  to  render,  while  holding  character  of  sui^reme 
importance,  the  instruction  and  equij^ments  so  ex- 
cellent and  the  scholarship  so  thorough  that  there 
shall  be  no  question  as  to  the  value  of  our  degree, 
nor  any  as  to  the  meaning  of  membership  in  our 
classes." 

Dr.  Hopkins  was  agreeably  surprised  by  the 
main  fact  communicated  by  the  letter,  and  made 
one  of  his  happy  extemporaneous  speeches  to  the 
delight  of  all  present. 

Eesolutions  adopted  by  the  Senior  class,  the  class 
of  1884,  presented  the  same  evening,  are  an  illus- 
tration of  the  feeling  that  each  succeeding  class 
cherished  and  w^as  pretty  sure  to  express  on  the 
birthday  of  the  eminent  teacher. 

"To  our  beloved  and  honored  Dr.  Hopkins. 

"We  take  great  pleasure  on  this  the  eighty-sec- 
ond anniversary  of  your  birthday  in  offering  you 


124  MARK  HOPKIXS. 

our  congratulations.  \\e  rejoice  greatly  that  God 
in  his  goodness  has  allowed  us  to  sit  under  the  in- 
structions of  one  whose  teaching  for  more  than  half 
a  century  has  prepared  so  many  young  men  to  take 
a  useful  and  honorable  place  in  the  work  of  the 
world.  We  appreciate  better  than  we  can  express 
the  inestimable  privilege  which  we  enjoy,  and  heart- 
ily hope  that  you  may  be  sj)ared  to  see  many  more 
of  these  anniversary  days,  and  be  permitted  to 
guide  many  classes  of  young  men  Iby  your  experi- 
ence and  counsel. 

"As  you  said  to  us  in  our  late  affliction, ^  so  now 
we  say  to  you,  'May  God  bless  you! '  " 

Horace  E.  Scudder,  of  the  class  of  1858,  sent  in 
1881  a  copy  of  the  school-book  "A  History  of  the 
United  States,"  which  he  had  just  published.  In 
the  letter  accompanying  the  book  these  sentences 
occur : — 

"I  am  afraid  that  none  of  us  say  enough  of  our 
obligation  to  you.  There  is  a  shamefacedness 
which  belono^s  in  the  New  Eno-land  character,  I 
think,  and  I  am  one  of  those  who  feel  very  deeply 
their  indebtedness  to  you  for  the  early  formation  of 
habits  of  thought.  I  was  immature  enough  in  my 
Senior  year  at  college  and  unable  to  make  the  best 
use  of  it,  but  I  am  confident  that  but  for  the  kind 
of  training  which  I  there  received  this  book  would 
scarcely  have  been  written.  So  you  see  you  are 
receiving  your  own  again." 

^  The  sudden  death  by  an  accident  when  coasting  of  Nathan 
Gest,  of  Illinois,  a  member  of  the  class. 


THE  TEACHER.  125 

In  the  same  year  Lavalette  Wilson,  of  the  class 
of  1856,  sent  an  appreciative  letter,  from  which  a 
few  words  are  taken :  — 

"It  is  true  that  your  pupils  collectively  have 
often  expressed  their  indebtedness  to  you,  but  I 
know  from  my  own  experience  as  a  teacher  how 
pleasant  it  is  when  old  pupils  come  individually 
in  after  years  and  show  their  appreciation  of  past 
labors. 

"At  this  late  day,  then,  my  dear  and  much  loved 
Dr.  Hopkins,  let  me  express  to  you  my  thanks  for 
your  valuable  instruction  and  uniform  kindness 
during  my  college  course,  and  at  the  same  time 
tender  to  you  all  the  good  wishes  which  are  apjDro- 
priate  to  this  season  of  the  year." 

These  testimonies  might  be  indefinitely  extended. 
Dr.  Hopkins  kept  all  the  letters  which  were  ad- 
dressed to  him  that  were  not  mere  business  forms, 
and  the  number  of  kindly  greetings  and  grateful 
acknowledgments  that  flowed  in  upon  him  during 
the  last  years  of  his  life  was  astonishing.  Clergy- 
men, teachers,  jurists,  authors,  among  his  pupils, 
and  eminent  men  not  his  pupils,  were  constantly 
sending  messages  of  respect  and  love.  Classes, 
alumni  associations,  bodies  not  connected  in  any 
organic  way  with  the  college,  sent  telegrams  and 
congratulations  with  each  returning  birthday. 

The  delivery  and  publication  of  the  address  in 
1886  on  the  fiftieth  anniversary  of  his  election  to 
the  presidency  of  the  college  was  the  occasion  of 
the  reception  of  many  letters,  expressive  of  indebt- 


126  MABK  HOPKINS. 

eclness  for  moral  and  intellectual  inspiration. 
Each  of  these  letters  has  its  individual  character, 
and  though  all  of  them  are  in  general  similar  to 
those  from  which  quotations  have  been  given,  the 
record  would  be  incomplete  without  adding  two  or 
three  illustrations  from  this  fresh  harvest. 

The  following  letter  from  an  eminent  profes- 
sor in  a  theological  seminary,  Rev.  Dr.  George 
Mooar,  of  Oakland,  California,  was  called  out  by 
the  announcement  that  the  commemorative  address 
would  be  delivered  at  Commencement. 

"I  note  that  at  the  approaching  Commencement 
the  chief  matter  of  general  interest  to  the  Alumni 
will  be  the  completion  of  your  fifty  years  of  service 
in  connection  with  the  college.  I  feel  impelled  to 
offer  you  my  congratulations  in  your  having  been 
allowed  of  Providence  to  continue  so  eminent  a  ser- 
vice for  the  half  century.  I  desire  also  to  express 
to  you  my  personal  gratitude  in  memory  of  what 
you  did  for  me  in  the  four  years  which  closed  thirty- 
five  years  ago.  It  was  much  to  me  to  have  your 
wisdom  in  the  class-room  and  your  kindness  and 
patience  in  private  counsel.  May  I  refer  to  one 
occasion  which  was  to  you  but  an  ordinary  incident, 
probably,  but  became  to  me  no  doubt  of  very  great 
importance.  Our  class  had  been  dowai  the  street 
on  some  joviality,  and  returning  we  were  supposed 
all  of  us  to  smoke  on  our  way  back  to  the  college. 
I  had  not  formed  the  habit  prevalent  in  the  class, 
but  had  occasionally  tried  my  capabilities  and 
joined  the  rest.  ,  Soon  after,  being  in  your  library, 


THE  TEACHER.  127 

you  gently  referred  to  the  fact,  and  advised  me  not 
to  form  the  hahit,  which  you  said  would,  to  one 
of  my  sedentary  tendencies,  prove  very  injurious. 
That  advice  touched  me  deeply  and  reinforced  my 
conscience  and  will.  Now,  after  thirty-five  years,  I 
find  myself  dwelling  on  this  friendly  service.  You 
will  receive  loftier  tributes,  and  I,  if  I  were  to  say 
anything  in  public,  should  have  as  much  occasion  as 
any  one  to  speak  of  my  indebtedness  as  to  clear- 
ness of  thought,  insight  of  principles,  and  ideals  of 
life.  But  just  now  in  this  informal  way  I  am 
moved  to  speak  of  this  incident  in  your  personal 
helpfulness  to  my  own  conduct." 

Another  letter  well  worth  preservation  in  .this 
record  is  from  a  professor  in  a  theological  semi- 
nary, who  was  not  a  graduate  of  Williams ;  — 

"  I  have  read  with  great  pleasure  your  address  at 
Williams  College  during  Commencement  week.  A 
graduate  of  Williams  who  had  been  taught  in  your 
own  class-room  could  scarcely  have  had  greater 
pleasure  in  reading  it  than  myself.  The  truth  is 
that  your  students  are  not  limited  to  the  Williams 
Alumni.  These  are  scarcely  a  tithe  of  the  entire 
number  of  minds  that  you  have  quickened  and 
directed.  As  one  of  these,  I  beg  not  only  to  offer 
you  my  congratulations  on  your  possession  of  the 
physical  vigor  required  for  the  delivery  of  such  an 
address,  but  also  to  thank  3^ou  for  your  defense  of 
a  liberal  course  of  education,  and  for  your  conten- 
tion that  its  scope  and  main  elements  should  be 
determined  by  the  educating  body  rather  than  by 


128  MARK  HOPKINS, 

the  unformed  pupil.  Your  strong-  and  timely  words 
will,  of  course,  be  eagerly  and  widely  read,  and 
cannot  fail  to  do  great  good." 

The  following  letter  is  from  a  pupil  in  the  min- 
istry, Rev.  Dr.  Addison  P.  Foster,  of  Roxbury :  — 

"I  shall  never  cease  to  be  thankfid  that  God  in 
his  goodness  permitted  me  to  receive  training  at 
your  hand.  Next  to  my  sainted  father,  whose  in- 
fluence on  me  to  the  day  of  his  death  was  constant 
and  most  helpfid,  I  owe  more  to  you  than  to  any 
other  man. 

"Not  long  since  a  gentleman  remarked  to  me, 
'All  Williams  men  have  a  family  resemblance. 
They  all  bear  the  mark  of  the  same  master  mind. ' 
I  have  heard  this  remark  more  than  once.  I  am 
thankful  that  I  can  call  you  my  mental  father. 

"Years  since,  when  I  entered  Princeton  Theo- 
logical Seminary  and  attended  Dr.  Charles  Hodge's 
lectures  in  theology,  I  found  to  my  surprise  that 
my  theological  system  was  already  outlined,  and 
that  it  did  not  at  all  agree  with  his;  and  when  I 
came  to  reflect  upon  it,  I  saw  that  your  Saturday 
morning  lectures  on  Vincent"' s  Catechism  had  de- 
termined the  matter.  The  working  theology  of 
my  ministry  was  given  me  by  you." 

One  more  letter,  addressed  to  the  writer  of  this 
study,  may  be  added  to  these.  It  is  from  the 
Rev.  Dr.  John  Tatlock,  of  Hoosick  FaUs,  N.  Y. 
Two  or  three  admirable  letters  written  by  him  to 
Dr.  Hopkins  are  preserved,  but  this  letter  is  emi- 
nently fit  for  publication,  as  it  contains  the  matured 


THE  TEACHER.  129 

judgments  of  an  earnest  and  acute  mind  that  liaw 
been  for  thirty  years  successfully  devoted  to  the 
work  of  the  ministry :  — 

"Referring  to  your  favor  of  the  30th  ult.  I  re- 
member one  or  two  letters  to  Dr.  Hopkins,  written 
under  the  impressions  made  upon  me  by  his  later 
works,  but  of  course  cannot  recall,  at  this  dis- 
tance in  time,  the  sentiments  they  expressed.  As, 
however,  my  judgment  of  him,  as  a  thinker  and 
teacher,  has  not  changed,  except  as  experience 
and  reflection  have  made  it  stronger  and  more  dis- 
criminating, I  shall  find  little  difficulty  in  con- 
veying it. 

"I  understand  that  what  you  desire  is  not  so 
much  a  critical  estimate  of  Dr.  Hopkins  and  of 
his  philosophy  as  a  statement  of  my  indebtedness 
to  him  in  my  own  intellectual  life,  and  to  this 
therefore  I  shall  confine  myself. 

"In  the  first  place  I  owe  very  largely  to  Dr. 
Hopkins  whatever  power  of  clear  and  discriminat- 
ing thought  I  may  possess.  He  incited  his  pupils 
to  think,  and  taught  them  how  to  think.  He  in- 
structed them  in  the  nature  of  the  mind  and  in  the 
proper  mode  of  using  it.  He  made  the  impression 
that  the  thinker  is  more  than  tlie  thought,  and  truth 
less  valuable  than  the  ability  to  discover  it.  I  re- 
call distinctly  my  intellectual  awakening  in  his  class- 
room, and  the  peculiar  feeling  of  delight  I  experi- 
enced on  finding  that  I  had  a  mind  of  my  own. 

"I  have  never  foro^otten  some  of  his  definitions 
and  distinctions;  and  these  have  served  me,   not 


130  MARK  HOPKINS, 

more  by  their  intrinsic  importance,  than  by  their 
confirmation  of  the  habit  of  distinsruishino'  between 
things  that  differ. 

"  By  his  admirable  method  of  educing  the  powers 
of  his  students,  by  treating  them,  in  a  sense,  as  his 
equals  in  the  field  of  discussion,  he  evoked  the  con- 
sciousness of  an  independent  and  vigorous  intel- 
lectual life,  of  more  worth  than  the  most  perfect 
system  of  philosophy. 

"But  while  I  place  this  consideration  first,  I 
must  also  confess  my  indebtedness  to  him  for  a 
scheme  of  thought,  deep,  and  wide,  and  fruitfid, 
satisfying  at  once,  in  its  main  features,  the  de- 
mands of  the  reason  and  those  of  the  moral  nature. 
From  him  I  first  learned  the  meaning  of  the  word 
*  universe, '  and  under  his  guidance  began  the  life- 
long work  of  bringing  its  three  great  di^dsions, 
nature,  man,  and  God,  into  intelligible  and  har- 
monious relations. 

"More  particularly  I  desire  to  bear  testimon}^ 
to  the  immeasurable  advantages  I  have  derived 
from  his  'doctrine  of  ends.'  I  do  not  suppose 
that  Dr.  Hopkins  is  to  be  credited  with  the  discov- 
ery of  this  form  of  philosophy,  for,  on  the  supposi- 
tion of  its  correctness,  it  must  have  been  practically 
assumed  in  all  ages,  and  have  been  at  least  impli- 
citly recognized  and  admitted  by  many  writers. 
But  to  him  belongs  the  high  honor  of  having 
clearly  formulated  the  doctrine,  elaborated  a  system 
upon  it,  and  defended  it  from  the  gross  imputations 
of  utilitarianism.     At  any  rate,  Dr.  Hopkins  was 


THE  TEACHER.  131 

the  first  to  open  up  this  doctrine  to  me,  and  to  se- 
cure my  profound  and  unwavering  acceptance  of 
it,  and  I  can  truthfully  say  that  no  philosophical 
principle  with  which  I  am  acquainted  has  been  of 
gi-eater  service  to  me  in  the  field  of  theology,  both 
speculative  and  practical ;  casting  light  upon  dark 
places,  and  cutting  paths  through  the  thickets. 

"  I  could  write  much  more  upon  this  fruitful  and 
pleasing  theme,  but  as  a  personal  testimony  from 
one  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  most  grateful  pupils  what  I 
have  ^^Titten  will  be,  I  presume,  sufficient." 

Perhaps  the  most  striking  testimonial  to  his 
power  as  a  teacher  is  the  hall  dedicated  at  Williams 
College  to  the  honor  of  his  memory  three  years 
after  his  death.  This  fine  building,  almost  wholly 
devoted  to  purposes  of  instruction,  representing  a 
cost  of  nearly  890,000,  permanently  identifies  his 
name  with  the  teaching  of  the  college.  It  is  not 
the  idea  that  its  massive  walls  typify  the  solidity 
of  his  character,  or  that  its  abundant  windows  sug- 
gest the  openness  of  his  mind  to  light  and  the  clear- 
ness with  which  he  saw  and  enforced  the  truth,  that 
is  most  affecting  to  one  who  knows  the  history  of 
the  building.  It  is  the  thought  rather  that  there 
went  into  its  construction  a  multitude  of  small  sums 
from  teachers,  ministers,  and  men  in  humble  rela- 
tions, most  of  them  his  pupils,  whose  lives  had  been 
made  brighter  by  his  words,  and  into  whose  hearts 
had  passed  the  inspiration  won  by  his  own  endur- 
ance and  self-denial.  The  small  subscriptions  rep- 
resent equally  with  the  largest  the  consciousness  of 


132  MARK  HOPKINS. 

a  debt  which  cannot  be  paid.     The  building  is  the 
chorus  of  many  voices  saying  in  harmony :  — 

"  To  thee  it  was  given 
Many  to  save  with  thyself : 
And  at  the  end  of  thy  day, 
O  faithful  shepherd !  to  come, 
Bringing  thy  sheep  in  thy  hand." 


THE  AUTHOE. 


No  wild  enthusiast  of  the  right, 
Self -poised  and  clear,  he  showed  alway 
The  coolness  of  his  northern  night, 
The  ripe  repose  of  autumn's  day.'* 

Whittieb,  Bantoul. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


THE   AUTHOR. 


The  important  books  of  Dr.  Hopkins  are  not 
numerous.  They  were^  singularly  enough,  all  of 
them  called  out  by  invitations  to  deliver  a  course 
of  lectures.  Four  of  the  five  were  given  as  courses 
before  the  Lowell  Institute,  and  the  substance  of 
the  fifth  was  delivered  before  the  students  of  sev- 
eral theological  seminaries.  But  these  books  con- 
tain matured  thinking,  and  are  the  outcome  of  the 
long  and  careful  study  required  for  his  constant 
teaching  of  the  subjects  discussed.  He  had  taught 
morals  more  than  thirty  years  before  either  of  the 
books  on  morals  was  written,  and  intellectual  phi- 
losophy thirty-six  years  before  he  published  "An 
Outline  Study  of  Man."  A  volume  of  "Miscel- 
lanies "  made  u])  of  various  addresses  was  published 
in  1847,  and  a  collection  of  the  baccalaureate  ser- 
mons was  made  in  1863.  Another  collection  of 
these  sermons  appeared  with  the  title  "Strength 
and  Beauty  "  in  1874,  and  an  enlarged  edition  of 
this  was  issued  in  1884,  but  the  title  was  changed 
to  "Teachings  and  Counsels."  A  large  number  of 
addresses  and  sermons  and  review  articles  were 
printed  in  his  long  life,  some  of  which  are  of  great 


136  MABK  HOPKINS. 

value  but  are  not  contained  in  either  of  the  collected 
volumes.  As  perfect  a  list  of  these  as  can  now  be 
made  will  be  found  at  the  end  of  this  book. 

The  lectures  on  the  "Evidences  of  Christianity" 
delivered  in  January,  1844,  the  first  important  book 
of  Dr.  Hopkins,  bear  clear  marks  of  the  great  in- 
fluence that  Bishop  Butler  had  exercised  upon  his 
mind.  It  seems  at  first  thought  singular  that  the 
"Analogy,"  which  was  written  with  special  refer- 
ence to  the  unbelief  of  the  last  century,  and  had 
been  published  over  a  hundred  years  when  Dr. 
Hopkins  delivered  these  lectures,  should  have  kept 
so  firm  a  grasp  on  religious  thought,  and  should 
leave  its  indelible  marks  on  minds  so  different  as, 
for  instance,  that  of  Cardinal  Newman  and  that  of 
Dr.  Hopkins.  There  was  indeed  a  certain  affinity 
between  these  thinkers.  Both  were  born  almost 
at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  Newman  in  1801 
and  Dr.  Hopkins  in  1802,  and  the  lives  of  both 
stretched  on  through  the  most  varying  changes  in 
the  intellectual  world.  They  certainly  lived  to  wit- 
ness the  effect  of  discoveries  and  conceptions  that 
do  to  a  large  degree  lessen  the  cogency  of  Bishop 
Butler's  argument,  but  apparently  neither  of  these 
would  ever  let  go  of  two  immensely  significant 
principles  which  the  "Analogy"  teaches:  namely, 
first,  that  the  things  that  are  seen  have  counter- 
parts in  things  unseen;  and  secondly,  the  com- 
mon-sense and  wholesome  belief  that  probability  is 
and  must  be  the  guide  of  life.  The  one  was  indeed 
a  Puritan,  the  other  a  Komanist.     The  one  believed 


THE  AUTHOR.  137 

in  the  smallest  amount  of  machinery  in  religious 
things  and  in  the  fullest  liberty  for  a  local  church. 
The  other  was  carried  by  his  processes  of  thought 
to  the  acceptance  of  authority,  to  a  profound  hatred 
of  schism,  and  to  a  fervent  attachment  to  what  he 
held  as  the  one  original  Christian  church.  AYhen 
Dr.  Hopkins  in  conversation  with  one  of  the  college 
professors  regarding  Robert  Browning  said,  "  I  too 
am  a  mystic,"  he  expressed  the  affinity  that  he  had 
with  all  the  great  spiritual  teachers  of  the  age ;  and 
though  he  would  have  rejected  with  disdain  much 
of  Newman's  sacramentalism,  he  accepted  him  as 
a  brother  in  the  higher  region  of  spiritual  thought, 
and  with  him  emphasized  always  the  immediate  re- 
lation of  the  soul  to  the  things  unseen.  No  work 
of  Newman's  shows  more  plainly  or  more  beauti- 
fully the  far-reacliing  effect  of  the  great  "  Analogy  " 
than  these  lectures  by  Dr.  Hopkins  on  the  ''  Evi- 
dences of  Christianity." 

The  lectures  from  the  third  to  the  eighth  inclu- 
sive are  simply  the  carrying  out  with  fine  and  yet 
powerful  strokes  suggestions -that  might  well  arise 
from  the  study  of  the  "Analogy."  Of  this  there 
is  an  abundance  of  evidence.  The  following  state- 
ment from  the  "Analogy"  finds  reproduction  in 
the  third  lecture :  — 

"The  natural  world,  then,  and  natural  govern- 
ment of  it  being  such  an  incomprehensible  scheme, 
so  incomprehensible  that  a  man  must,  really  in  the 
literal  sense  know  nothing  at  all,  who  is  not  sensi- 
ble of  his  ioTiorance  in  it ;  this   immediately  sug- 


138  MARK  HOPKINS. 

gests,  and  strongly  shows  the  credibility,  that  the 
moral  world  and  government  of  it  may  be  so  too."  ^ 

The  third  point  in  the  third  lecture  on  the  "Evi- 
dences "  opens  as  follows:  "I  observe  that  there  is 
an  analogy,  both  in  their  kind  and  in  their  limit, 
between  the  knowledge  communicated  by  nature 
and  that  by  Christianity." 

Under  the  fifth  head  in  the  same  lecture  refer- 
ence is  made  directly  to  the  fourth  chapter  of  the 
second  part  of  the  "Analogy." 

The  seventh  point  in  the  same  lecture  is  intro- 
duced by  quotations  from  the  chapter  in  the  second 
part  of  the  "Analogy,"  on  "the  appointment  of  a 
Mediator  and  Redeemer,"  and  is  quite  covered  by 
the  quotation. 2 

The  following  extract  shows  plainly  the  potency 
of  the  analogical  argument  for  Dr.  Hopkins's 
mind :  — 

"I  observe  that  there  is  an  analogy  between  the 
laws  of  nature,  as  discovered  by  induction,  and 
the  moral  laws  contained  in  the  New  Testament, 
not  only  as  implying  the  same  natural  attributes 
in  God,  but  as  they  are  carried  out  to  the  same 
perfection.  It  is  the  great  and  sublime  character- 
istic of  natural  law,  especially  of  the  law  of  gravi- 
tation, that,  while  it  controls  equally  the  minutest 

1  Butler's  Analogy,  part  i.  chap.  vii. 

^  It  is  farther  proof  of  Butler's  hold  on  Dr.  Hopkins  that  he 
quotes  from  the  Sermons,  in  the  controversy  with  Dr.  McCosh,  to 
the  efPeet  that  there  need  not  he  inconsistence  between  holiness 
and  happiness,  and  calls  Butler  "the  highest  English  authority 
in  morals." 


THE  AUTHOR.  139 

particle  that  floats  in  the  sunbeam ;  and  that,  how- 
ever wiklly  that  particle  may  be  driven,  —  wher- 
ever it  may  float  in  the    infinity  of   space,  —  it 
never,  for  one  moment,  escapes  the  cognizance  and 
supervision  of  this  law.     It  never  can.     This  im- 
plies a  minuteness  and  perfection  of  natural  gov- 
ernment, of  which  science,  as  known  in  the  time 
of  Christ,  could  have  given  no  intimation.     But 
now,  how  natural  does  it  seem  that  the  same  God, 
who,  in  the  universal  control  of  his  natural  law,  no 
more  neglects  the  minutest  particle  than  the  lar- 
gest planet,  should  also,  in  his  moral  law,  take  cog- 
nizance of  every  idle  word,  and  of  the  thoughts  and 
intents  of  the  heart !     Yes ;  I  find,  in  the  particle  of 
dust,  shown  by  the  greatest  expounder  of  God's  nat- 
ural law  to  be  constantly  regarded  by  him,  and  in 
the  idle  word  declared  by  Christ  to  come  under  the 
notice  and  condemnation  of  his  moral  law,  —  I  find, 
in  the  minuteness  and  completeness  of  the  govern- 
ment of  matter,  as  revealed  by  modern  science,  and 
even  shown  to  the  eye  by  the  microscope,  and  in 
that  interpretation  of  the  moral  law  which  makes 
it  spiritual,  causing  it  to  reach  every  thought  and 
intent  of  the  heart,  —  a  conception  of  the   same 
absolute  perfection  of  government,  both  in  the  nat- 
ural and  moral  world;  and  I  find  the  same  infinite 
natural  attributes  implied  as  the  sole  conditions  on 
which  such  a  government  in  either  of  these  dej)art- 
ments  can  be  carried  on. 

"This  idea  of  the  absolute  universality  and  per- 
fection of   government    in    any  department  —  the 


140  MABK  HOPKINS. 

only  one,  however,  worthy  of  a  perfect  God  —  is 
not  an  idea,  especially  in  its  moral  applications, 
which  I  should  think  likely  to  have  originated  with 
man.  In  the  department  of  nature  we  know  that 
he  did  not  originate  or  suspect  it  till  it  was  forced 
on  his  observation.  And  how  comes  it  to  pass 
that  this  absolute  perfection  of  moral  government, 
this  notice  of  the  particle  of  dust  there,  this  judg- 
ment of  every  idle  word,  of  every  secret  thing,  of 
the  minutest  moral  act  of  the  most  inconsiderable 
moral  being  that  ever  lived,  should  have  been  dis- 
covered and  announced  thousands  of  years  before 
its  more  obvious  counterpart  in  the  natural  world 
was  even  suspected?  "  ^ 

The  third  lecture  from  which  this  passage  is 
taken,  and  which  presents  many  suggestions  of 
Butler's  influence,  is  more  distinctly  an  argument 
from  analogy  than  most  of  the  lectures,  but  not 
more  really  so  than  some  of  the  others.  For  in- 
stance, in  the  fifth  lecture  on  Christianity  and  its 
adaptation  to  the  intellect  and  the  affections,  the 
argument  from  analogy  is  constantly  appearing. 

Probably  no  lectures  that  Dr.  Hopkins  ever 
wrote  had  a  greater  effect  on  the  audience  or  ap- 
pealed more  strongly  to  the  general  reader.  The 
subject  is  not  treated  from  a  theologian's  stand- 
point, but  from  that  of  an  ordinary  intelligent 
thinker,  and  the  treatment  is  at  times  plain,  but 
always  dignified ;  at  times  admirably  eloquent,  but 
never  extravagant.     I  remember  distinctly  the  im- 

1  Lecture  III.  p.  83. 


THE  AUTHOR.  141 

pression  produced  on  my  mind  by  some  of  these 
passages,  when  as  a  student  I  read  this  book.  It 
was  like  being  led  up  to  a  lofty  standpoint,  where 
one  could  take  a  wide  view  and  note  how  solid  and 
grand  the  buttresses  on  the  great  mountains  are,  to 
have  the  righteousness  and  love  and  reason  of  the 
revealed  God  distinctly  exliibited  as  sustaining  his 
throne.  It  was  impossible  for  a  thoughtful  student 
not  to  feel  that  his  previous  conception  of  the  sys- 
tem of  nature  as  related  to  the  system  of  Christian- 
ity had  been  very  imperfect,  and  that  his  ideas  of 
the  unity  in  God's  kingdoms  were  very  rudimen- 
tary. The  strange  sensation  of  enlarging  views 
that  may  come  with  the  first  mastery  of  a  principle 
in  arithmetic  or  algebra  or  lang-uage,  but  whenever 
it  comes  in  any  department  of  knowledge  suggests 
a  prophecy  of  endless  attainment,  came  to  me  at 
times  over  this  book. 

There  is  perhaps  more  of  a  glow  of  eloquence  in 
these  lectures  than  in  any  other  of  his  writings. 
They  were,-  in  the  first  place  (and  this  often  seems 
to  imply  freshness  and  vigor),  the  first  important 
production  of  the  author.  There  is  often  much  in 
a  first  book  that  is  germinal,  thr.t  finds  ample  ful- 
fillment and  development  later ;  but  when  for  the 
first  time  a  thoughtful  mind  that  has  had  long  train- 
ing, and  has  pondered  life  or  moral  truth,  or  has 
made  a  solution  for  itself  of  some  deep  question, 
seeks  utterance,  there  may  be  a  warmth  and  power 
that  find  quick  entrance  to  the  popular  heart.  It 
would  be  easy  enough  to  name  j^oets,  novelists,  and 


142  MARK  HOPKINS. 

moralists  whose  first  publications  have  at  once  ob- 
tained and  never  lost  popularity,  a  popularity  often 
greater  than  that  vouchsafed  to  their  subsequent 
writing.  It  has  already  been  stated  that  at  a  cer- 
tain point  in  his  college  course  young  Hopkins,  com- 
pelled by  j^hysical  weakness,  went  home  to  Stock- 
bridge  for  rest,  and  while  at  home  applied  his  mind 
to  the  study  of  the  Christian  evidences.  He  came 
to  the  perfectly  definite  conclusion  that  Christianity 
is  a  supernatural  revelation  from  God,  and  from 
that  position,  as,  at  the  age  of  eighty-three,  he 
stated  to  the  students  in  the  college  chapel  on  the 
day  of  prayer  for  colleges  in  1885,  he  never  in  the 
least  wavered.  That  was  probably  the  first  great 
subject  with  which  he  grappled.  There  can  be 
none  more  momentous,  and  in  that  deep  pondering 
doubtless  some  of  the  admirably  clear  and  convin- 
cing thoughts  of  these  lectures  first  crystallized. 
They  were  ripened  and  developed  by  subsequent 
thought,  but  the  lectures  exhibit  the  strength  of  the 
young  man,  the  glad  movement,  the  exuberance 
and  vigor  of  illustration  that  belong  with  the  first 
utterance  of  symmetrically  developed  power. 

In  the  second  place  the  lectures  were  written  in 
a  brief  period  of  time.  It  does  not  seem  that  Dr. 
Hopkins  ever  had  the  love  of  authorshij^  for  au- 
thorship^ s  sake.  He  had  accepted  the  vocation  of 
teaching.  The  allotment  of  regular  tasks  often 
induces  the  disposition  to  regard  these  of  supreme 
importance.  In  his  case  these  were  numerous 
enough  and  various  enough  to   absorb  his  entire 


THE  AUTHOR.  143 

time  for  many  years  after  he  became  president. 
He  could  not  work  upon  these  lectures  which  he 
had  been  invited  to  deliver  before  the  Lowell  Insti- 
tute during  the  college  session.  When  in  the  au- 
tumn of  1843  the  college  year  ended,  he  found  it 
impossible  to  force  his  mind  to  undertake  the  labor 
of  writing.  He  dropped  everything  and  went  into 
the  woods  for  three  weeks,  and  on  his  return  took 
up  the  work  with  ardor,  and  wrote  the  twelve  lec- 
tures in  a  few  weeks.  They  have  the  dash  and 
glow  that  belongs  with  rapid  composition.  They 
are  less  elaborate,  but  more  spontaneous  than  much 
of  his  published  writing.  A  notable  but  friendly 
critic  ^  took  exception  to  two  or  three  inconsistencies 
of  thought  and  to  a  haziness  in  certain  passages. 
So  far  as  there  was  any  justice  in  the  criticisms, 
the  inconsistencies  and  lack  of  clearness  so  rarely 
found  in  his  writings  had  their  origin  in  the  rapid 
composition.  For  the  general  reader  we  may,  how- 
ever, well  question  whether  the  rapidity  of  compo- 
sition did  not  secure  a  freedom  of  movement  and  a 
persuasiveness  in  presentation  that  more  than  com- 
pensates for  the  presence  of  here  and  there  an  idea 
not  perfectly  thought  out,  or  the  introduction  of  an 
occasional  question  not  definitely  settled. 

Lectures  on  moral  science  were  originally  written 
soon  after  Dr.  Hopkins's  election  in  1830  to  the 
chair  of  Moral  Philosophy  and  Rhetoric.  After 
his  election  as  president  in  1836,  the  duties  which 

^  Rev.  Dr.  Noah  Porter,  afterwards  President  of  Yale  College; 
see  vol.  iv,  of  The  New  Englander. 


144  MAMK  iionaxs, 

he  had  to  discliarge  were  so  onerous  as  to  leave  lit- 
tle room  for  the  writing  of  lectures.  He  taught 
Anatomy,  Intellectual  Philosophy,  Moral  Philoso- 
phy, Natural  Theology,  Butler's  Analogy,  and  such 
Doctrinal  Theology  as  was  involved  in  Vincent's 
Questions  on  the  Catechism.  Up  to  the  year 
1855  he  taught  also  Rhetoric.  The  correction  of 
compositions  and  the  criticism  of  declamations 
were  a  part  of  his  duties.  If  we  add  to  this  long 
catalogue  the  preaching  at  least  once  every  Sab- 
bath, there  can  be  little  doubt  that  no  New  Eng- 
land college  president  was  doing  the  same  variety 
and  breadth  of  work.  For  distinction  and  emi- 
nence among  his  contemporaries,  for  a  visible^  per- 
manent record  of  his  great  intellectual  and  liter- 
ary power,  one  may  be  tempted  to  regret  this. 
"When  one  recalls  the  clear  flowing  words  of  the 
lectures  on  the  "Evidences,"  and  is  uplifted  by  the 
sweep  of  the  thought,  or  perceives  the  admirable 
and  subtle  analysis  of  the  lectures  on  "Moral 
Science,"  one  cannot  repress  a  feeling  of  disap- 
pointment that  so  potent  a  master  of  English,  and 
so  exact  and  penetrating  a  thinker,  should  not  have 
left  more  abundant  records  of  his  unique  powers 
as  a  writer  on  the  lofty  subjects  with  which  his 
thought  was  always  conversant.  This  feeling  is 
deepened  somewhat  by  the  remembrance  that  his 
article  on  "Mystery,"  which  was  published  in  the 
"Journal  of  Science  "  in  1827,  was  marked  by  the 
same  high  qualities  that  characterized  his  last 
course  of  lectures  on  "  The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man," 


THE  AUTHOR.  145 

published  iu  1883.      He  continued  to  teach  until 
1887,  the  year  of  his  death. 

This  period  of  sixty  years  was  filled  with  pure 
and  ennobling  thoughts  on  the  highest  subjects, 
and  many  of  these  thoughts  are  written  only  in 
the  minds  and  memories  of  his  pupils.  Reflection 
leads  to  the  conclusion  that,  by  making  his  para- 
mount duties  those  of  the  class-room,  he  contrib- 
uted more  effectually  to  cleanse  and  ennoble  the 
thought  of  his  generation  than  if  he  had  sought  for 
influence  chiefly  or  largely  as  a  writer.  It  was 
nit  an  auspicious  fate  that  put  the  teaching  of  so 
many  subjects  and  the  upbuilding  of  the  college 
all  on  one  man.  What  a  college  owes  first  and 
always  to  its  pupils  is  the  inspiration  of  good 
teaching,  the  example  of  manly,  courteous,  broad 
intellectual  activity  in  the  class-room.  This  Dr. 
Hopkins  always  gave.  In  the  days  of  his  darkest 
fears  for  the  college  (and  there  were  many  dark 
days)  the  steady  patience  and  kindliness  and  inci- 
siveness  of  his  teaching  never  revealed  in  the  least 
the  anxieties  that  beset  him.  It  would  have  been 
easy  enough  for  some  men  to  say,  '*  I  cannot  carry 
this  heavy  burden  of  teaching ;  I  must  have  time 
for  reading  and  writing,"  and  there  would  have 
been  reason  in  the  appeal.  But  regarding  his  life 
as  consecrated  to  the  college,  and  conscious  that 
nothing  could  ever  stimulate  and  mould  the  young 
men  gathered  in  the  college  like  the  personal  in- 
fluence of  conscientious  teachers,  he  gave  to  the 
Senior  class  his  efficient  guidance  from  the  begin- 


146  MARK  HOPKINS. 

ning  of  the  year  to  the  end.  It  was  in  one  sense 
the  Christian,  self-denying  course,  but  it  was  also 
the  wisest  course.  He  might  have  been  recognized 
in  England  and  Germany  and  France  as  a  discov- 
erer of  truth  and  an  illustrious  writer.  He  chose 
to  be  remembered  by  his  pupils  as  the  humble 
teacher  who  held  their  hand  in  their  early  halt- 
ing and  uncertain  steps.  The  seed  that  he  sowed 
was  germinating  through  all  the  lives,  especially  in 
those  who  became  teachers  and  preachers  of  right- 
eousness. The  loyalty  of  the  many  alumni  to  the 
college  became  something  both  higher  and  deeper 
than  it  could  have  been  had  it  rested  simply  on 
pride  in  distinguished  achievements.  It  was  en- 
kindled by  a  personal  relation ;  its  foundation  was 
gratitude  for  intellectual  and  moral  awakening; 
for  an  opening  of  the  mind  to  the  universal  in  the 
individual,  and  to  the  beautiful  harmonies  of  the 
universe.  Wherever  the  graduates  of  the  college 
went,  they  carried  something  of  his  breadth  with 
them.  When  one  considers  the  location  of  the  col- 
lege, its  great  remoteness  during  most  of  his  pres- 
idency from  the  world's  activities,  the  centralizing 
tendency  that  swept  the  best  prepared  young  men 
into  the  larger  colleges  from  the  centres  of  culture, 
one  must  admit  something  unique  in  the  results  of 
his  training.  The  college  might  be  called  provin- 
cial. Its  equipments  were  meagre.  For  a  consid- 
erable period  of  his  hardest  labors  notes  of  provin- 
cialism were  perceptible  among  the  diverse  college 
utterances.     Some  of  the  students  from  the  cities 


THE  AUTHOR.  147 

remarked  these  notes.  For  all  that,  when  the  Wil- 
liams graduate  went  out  into  the  world,  whether 
he  came  originally  from  a  retired  farm  or  from  a 
city  home,  he  went  with  a  good  understanding  of 
himself,  wdth  a  clear  idea  of  his  relations  to  the 
world,  and  with  a  much  broader  conception  of  the 
universe  and  its  harmonious  adjustments  than 
characterized  the  graduates  of  some  larger  colleges. 
He  may  have  known  less  Latin,  less  Greek,  less 
history,  and  less  literature,  hut  he  knew  quite  as 
much  about  man  in  his  essential,  fallen,  but  di- 
vine manhood;  about  the  laws  of  his  being  and 
their  relations  to  one  another;  about  the  universal 
principles  of  God's  natural  and  moral  government. 
It  w^as  the  peculiarity  of  this  teacher  that  he  gave 
this  stamp  of  universal  relations  in  conditions 
largely  provincial,  and  thus  struck  the  keynote  for 
many  noble  careers.  For,  whatever  was  provin- 
cial in  any  feature  of  our  college  life  when  I  was  a 
student  at  Williams,  there  was  nothing  provincial 
about  Dr.  Hopkins.  Wherever  he  went,  he  was  and 
he  looked  a  citizen  of  the  world,  one  might  rather 
say  a  king  of  men,  and  this  was  preeminently  true 
in  the  class-room.  Whether  he  spoke,  or  prayed, 
or  was  silent,  the  observer  knew  that  that  massive 
head  carried  wisdom;  that  those  eyes  had  looked 
into  secrets  of  the  widest  range  and  application. 
This  universal  element  in  his  teaching  and  his  char- 
acter is  nowhere  more  evident  than  in  the  lectures 
on  "Moral  Science,"  which  were  revised  between 
1858  and  1861.     A  good  illustration  of  this  ele- 


148  MARK  HOPKINS. 

ment  is  found  in  tlie  discussion  of  glory  at  the 
close  of  tlie  fifth  lecture :  — 

"Our  constitution  does  not  deceive  us.  Its  ten- 
dencies need  guidance,  not  eradication.  This  part 
of  it  is  a  striking  indication  of  the  greatness  of  our 
nature  and  of  its  capacity  of  being  put  into  rela- 
tion with  vast  numbers  and  great  interests."  "Re- 
garding ourselves  not  merely  as  citizens  of  this 
world,  but  of  the  universe,  and  knowing  that  God 
is  over  all,  and  that  there  is  somewhere  a  vast 
assembly  of  the  good  to  whom  our  conduct  either 
now  is  or  shall  be  known,  we  may  give  to  this  prin- 
ciple of  action  free  scope !  "  ^ 

So  in  discussing  the  law  of  limitation  which  has 
so  much  and  such  apt  efficiency  in  his  system,  he 
strikes  again  and  again  the  broad  universal  note, 
if  I  may  say  so.  "The  law  applies  universally  so 
long  as  there  is  a  good,  that  is,  conditional  for  one 
above  it,  —  so  long  as  there  is  an  end,  there  is  also 
a  means.  But  when  we  reach  the  highest  and  su- 
preme good,  as  that  is  conditional  for  nothing  be- 
yond itself,  there  can  then  be  no  excess.  That  is 
infinite  !  it  is  the  ocean  without  a  bottom  or  a 
shore."  Aristotle  makes  virtue  and  good  consist  in 
proportion,  in  the  golden  mean  of  activity  for  our 
appetites  and  desires.  Dr.  Hopkins  says  directly 
after  the  above  passage,  "  We  may  now  see  how  far 
Aristotle  was  right.  His  system  had  a  basis,  and 
not  a  narrow  one.  Much  of  our  good  is  the  result 
of  proportion  and  limitation,  and  of  finding  the 
^  Moral  Science,  Lecture  V.  p.  128. 


THE  AUTHOR.  149 

golden  mean.  He  was  right  as  far  as  he  went,  but 
he  needed  the  law  of  limitation,  and  he  did  not  see 
the  ocean."  ^ 

The  value  of  a  system  of  intellectual  philosophy 
may  be  said  to  be  tested  by  the  clearness  and  force 
with  which  the  contents  of  consciousness  are  re- 
vealed and  discussed.  Moral  systems  are  differ- 
entiated by  the  treatment  of  conscience  and  the 
foundation  of  obligation.  In  these  lectures  as  re- 
vised and  published  in  1863,  having  been  delivered 
before  the  Lowell  Institute  the  previous  season, 
there  is  clearly  presented  the  doctrine  that  "obli- 
gation" to  choose  the  higher  good  is  intuitive  and 
ultimate,  and  that  the  "right "  itself  is  not  an  intui- 
tive idea,  which  found  its  fuller  treatment  later  in 
"The  Law  of  Love."  This  doctrine,  which,  if  not 
original  with  Dr.  Hopkins,  was  at  least  discovered 
by  him,  and  which  for  him  set  the  moral  into  new 
and  more  perfect  harmony  with  the  other  depart- 
ments of  man's  nature,  was  really  the  outgrowth  of 
that  quality  in  his  mind  which  sought  unity  in  di- 
versity, and  was  never  content  until  it  apprehended 
the  universal.  This  quality  gives  a  large  part  of 
the  charm  to  his  writing,  and  it  is  evident  enough 
that  the  claims  of  Christianity  to  our  acceptance 
rested  for  him  in  part  on  the  harmony  between  na- 
ture and  revelation  (considering  man  here  as  a  part 
of  nature),  and  found  here  a  basis  which  seemed  in- 
creasingly solid.  It  will  be  better  to  discuss  later 
the  peculiar  doctrines  in  morals  which  gave  such 

1  Moral  Science,  Lecture  III.  p.  73. 


150  MARK  HOPKINS. 

comfort  to  his  own  mind,  and  have  found  increasing 
favor  with  earnest  thinkers  of  our  country  of  late 
years.  There  are  certain  passages  in  the  lecture 
relating  to  "Personality  and  Conscience"  that  il- 
lustrate both  the  beauty  and  the  scope  of  his 
thought  and  the  exactness  with  which  he  pursued 
every  thought  and  analogy  to  its  innermost  secret. 
The  poetic  power  of  the  following  words  serves  to 
introduce  in  a  general  way  the  importance  of  the 
analysis  of  conscience:  "There  is  no  beauty  of  a 
ship  with  every  sail  set,  speeding  its  way  over  the 
subject  element  to  its  haven,  that  can  be  compared 
with  that  of  the  organized  power  of  man  acting  in 
harmony,  —  those  ruling  that  ought  to  rule,  and 
those  serving  that  ought  to  serve,  and  all  conspir- 
ing to  their  destined  end  !  nor  is  any  storm  in  nature 
so  sublime  as  the  conflicts  that  may  arise,  when 
temptation  and  opposition  come  between  a  true- 
hearted  man  and  the  attainment  of  his  end."  Dr. 
Hopkins  does  not  here  identify  conscience  with  the 
entire  moral  nature,  but  makes  its  action  a  function 
of  the  moral  reason.  The  whole  moral  nature  con- 
sists "  of  those  powers  whose  activity  gives  the  moral 
quality,  and  also  of  those  which  judge  of  the  moral 
quality,  and  are  affected  by  it,  and  it  would  con- 
duce to  perspicuity  if  the  term  conscience  could  be 
confined  to  the  latter."^  The  relation  of  the  will 
to  conscience  makes  the  advantage  of  this  distinc- 
tion clear  at  once.  The  will  is  certainly  essential 
to  a  moral  act.     There  can  be  no  moral  act  with- 

1  Moral  Science.  Lecture  YII.  p.  172. 


THE  AUTHOR.  151 

out  an  exercise  of  choice  and  of  free  choice.  The 
will  is  then  a  very  essential  part  of  the  moral  na- 
ture, but  the  conscience  affirms  obligation  to  choose, 
anil  issues  an  order  to  the  will  to  choose  and  to  act 
under  that  choice.  The  will  does  not  always  obey. 
If  the  conscience  was  coincident  with  the  entire 
moral  nature,  how  could  the  will  disobey? 

It  is  in  this  lecture  that  Dr.  Hopkins  reaches 
what  is  highest  in  man  and  finds  his  true  good. 
"  We  now  reach  a  form  of  activity  that  is  a  con- 
dition for  nothing  within  the  system  above  itself, 
which  has  in  itself  and  in  its  results  not  only  a 
good,  but  the  good  and  the  supreme  good  for  man, 
and  which  can  therefore  be  subject  to  no  law  of 
limitation."  "What,  then,  is  the  highest  form  of 
activity  of  which  we  are  capable  ?  By  a  fair  anal- 
ysis this  has  been  shown  to  be  love.  What  are 
the  ajDpropriate  objects  of  love?  They  are  God 
and  our  neighbors.  What  is  the  highest  possible 
degree  of  this  love  ?  It  is  the  love  of  God  with  all 
the  heart  and  of  our  neighbor  as  ourselves. 

"Here  then  do  we  have,  after  as  full  and  fair  an 
examination  as  I  could  give  it,  the  human  constitu- 
tion itself  uttering  the  substance  of  that  law  which 
was  spoken  in  thunder  four  thousand  years  ago, 
and  uttering,  because  it  is  impossible  to  find  those 
more  appropriate,  the  very  words  of  Him  who  spoke 
as  never  man  spoke,  when  He  gave  a  summary  of 
that  law.  Wonderful  is  it  that  his  words  should 
be  the  exact  formula  for  the  expression  of  the  high- 
est possible  activity  of  the  highest  powers. 


152  MARK  HOPKIXS. 

''Thus  as  in  a  former  lecture  we  found  that  the 
teachings  inwrought  into  the  whole  framework  of 
nature  were  in  perfect  harmony  with  the  constitu- 
tion of  man,  so  do  we  now  find  that  the  teachings 
of  that  constitution  are  themselves  in  perfect  har- 
mony with  those  of  the  revealed  word  of  God.  So 
it  is  that  'deep  calleth  unto  deep.'  So  is  man 
the  connecting  link  between  that  which  is  lowest 
and  that  which  is  highest."^ 

It  is,  of  course,  open  to  some  to  say  that  the  feel- 
ing for  universal  relations  which  exists  in  every 
mind  had  been  developed  by  this  great  teacher 
into  a  passion,  and  that  such  a  passage  as  the  above 
only  shows  how  self -deluded  an  intellect  once  calm 
and  cool  may  become.  There  will  be  no  danger 
that  any  student  who  came  under  the  influence 
of  Mark  Hopkins  as  a  teacher  will  ever  believe 
that  the  cautious,  steady,  penetrative,  luminous  in- 
telligence with  which  he  examined  every  subject 
ever  became  tainted  with  delusion,  or  charged  with 
bias.  The  accusation  would  come  with  strange  im- 
propriety from  those  for  whom  the  materialistic 
doctrine  of  evolution  derives  its  main  support  from 
universal  relations.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  one  of 
the  most  eminent  advocates  of  evolution  (but  not 
of  materialistic  evolution)  in  this  covmtry,  and  one 
of  Dr.  Hopkins's  pupils,  has  admitted  that  Dr. 
Hopkins's  method  of  looking  at  nature  and  man 
had  been  of  immense  service  to  him  in  coming  to 
his  conclusions  as  a  man  of  science. 

1  Moral  Science,  Lecture  VII.  pp.  179,  180. 


TUE  AUTHOR.  153 

But  with  all  Dr.  Hopkins's  love  for  universal 
relations,  with  that  master  pov/er  which  he  evinced 
in  treating  every  subject  of  reaching  out  into  vast 
spaces  and  exhibiting  the  grand  affinities  of  the 
humblest  thing,  he  drew  back  from  evolution. 
His  philosophy  was  full  of  gradations.  It  w^as  a 
philosophy  of  gradations.  It  connected  the  lowest 
atom  with  divine  intelligence.  Bird  and  beast, 
star  and  sun,  flower  and  angel,  were  parts,  orderly 
parts,  and  graduated  parts  for  him  as  for  Plato  of 
that  system  wdiich  included  man  and  began  and 
ended  in  God.  But  differentiations  no  less,  per- 
haps even  more,  than  affinities  were  valid  for  his 
mind.  It  was  as  true  for  him  that  moral  nature 
is  the  his^hest  thino^  in  the  univ^erse  as  that  man  is 
subject  to  gravitation.  "The  beauty  of  the  ship 
with  every  sail  set"  speeding  to  its  goal  across 
tempestuous  seas  was  incomparably  inferior  to  the 
march  of  the  martyr  to  the  stake. 

In  the  first  of  the  lectures  of  "The  Scriptural 
Idea  of  Man,"  published  in  1883,  which  had  been 
delivered  before  theological  students  at  New  Haven, 
Boston  University,  Chicago,  Oberlin,  and  Prince- 
ton, the  statement  that  "God  created"  brings  up 
this  question  of  evolution.  Dr.  Hopkins  does  not 
regard  the  term  "evolution  "  as  applicable  simply  to 
a  process,  but  would  make  it  cover  causation,  the 
cause  of  the  evolutionist  being  an  unconscious  im- 
personal force.  It  is  thus  set  directly  against  the 
Scriptural  account  of  the  origin  of  man.  His  rea- 
soning is  cogent  and  conclusive  against  that  atheis- 


154  MARK  HOPKINS. 

tic  conception,  but  the  possible  truth  in  evolution 
as  the  mode  of  God's  creation  and  as  thus  pre- 
sented, certainly  involving  nothing  more  atheistic 
than  the  law  of  gravitation,  is  not  considered. 
This  many  Christian  theologians  accept,  recogniz- 
ing points  of  transition,  large  additions  to  matter 
and  organized  life  in  its  different  states  by  a  per- 
sonal God. 

It  seemed  to  Dr.  Hopkins  as  to  Agassiz  that 
there  was  an  inevitable  tendency  in  Darwin's  doc- 
trine, w^hen  it  was  first  put  forward,  to  reduce  mind 
to  matter,  will  to  a  blind  nisiis,  freedom  to  neces- 
sity, and  to  obliterate  the  pervasive  and  sublime 
manifestations  of  intelligence  in  nature.  The 
writer  well  remembers  how  one  of  Darwin's  illus- 
trations of  the  possible  transformations  of  animal 
forms  w^as  read  from  the  desk  in  the  chapel  one 
Sunday  morning  by  the  president,  then  in  the 
manliest  majesty  of  age,  soon  after  the  book  on 
the  "Origin  of  Species"  was  published,  and  what 
impatience  and  scorn  w^ere  expressed  for  the  illus- 
tration. The  statement  w^as  made  that  it  was  too 
early  to  pronounce  positively  on  a  theory  appar- 
ently supported  by  a  vast  bod}^  of  facts.  But  it 
was  plain  enough  that  the  far-reaching  mind  of  the 
preacher  discovered  at  once  the  immense  impetus 
that  would  be  given  to  materialism  and  atheism  by 
the  adoption  of  Darwin's  views.  They  would  tend 
to  the  elimination  of  the  evidences  of  design  from 
the  universe,  which  w^as  afterward  the  effect  on 
Darwin  himself,  and  which  has  been  a  marked  re- 
sult of  the  wide  acceptance  of  the  theory. 


THE  AUTHOR.  155 

"  The  field  which  we  took  to  be  thickly  sown  with 
design  seems  under  the  light  o£  Darwinism  to  yield 
only  a  crop  of  accidents."  ^  Because,  in  part,  of  his 
keen  foresight  of  the  natural  results  of  Darwin's 
teachings,  he  continued  to  emphasize  differences  to 
the  end  of  his  life.  I  once  remarked  to  him  that 
Professor  Gray  had  asserted  that  it  was  impossible 
to  make  a  clear  line  of  demarcation  between  the 
animal  and  the  vegetable  kingdoms.  His  reply 
revealed  the  absolutely  essential  importance  for 
his  mind  of  maintaining  fundamental  differences. 
"I  do  not  doubt  there  is  a  distinction,  though  it 
may  not  be  discovered."  The  distinction  is  at 
least  practical,  if  not  scientific,  and  will  probably 
never  be  lost  from  common  language.  For  his 
mind  this  difference  was  the  result  of  additions 
from  a  power  above,  and  to  reduce  all  these  addi- 
tions to  imperceptible  growth  from  within  seemed 
to  deny  that  there  was  any  uplifting  from  without. 

Evolution  meant  at  first  and  equally  for  him  at 
last  the  obliteration  of  design,  the  elimination  of 
a  personal  God.  He  did  not  call  a  believer  in  de- 
velopment as  to  the  method  of  God's  creation  an 
evolutionist.  To  evolution  as  he  defined  it  he  was 
inflexibly  hostile.  The  gradations  of  his  philoso- 
phy had  causes  and  ends.  Because  they  were 
gradations,  because  they  denoted  differences,  be- 
cause they  marked  additions  for  ends  and  expressed 
the  intentions  of  a  superintending  mind,  he  would 
not   abide    their  reduction  to  nothingness,  or  the 

1  Professor  Asa  Gray,  Natural  Science  and  Religion,  p.  85. 


156  MABK  HOPKIXS. 

reduction   of  tlieir  causes  to  a  blind  nisus  or  an 
unknowable  force. 

He  did  not,  as  lias  been  seen,  object  to  tbe  ree- 
osfnition  of  affinities  between  man  and  the  lower 
animals,  or  indeed  to  affinities  between  man  and 
tlie  clod  on  wliicb  lie  walks.  Indeed,  he  always 
empbasized  those  affinities.  He  would  have  been 
perfectly  willing  to  adopt  the  words  of  Faust  in 
regard  to  nature,  — 

"  Before  me  thou  dost  lead  her  living  tribes, 
And  dost  in  silent  grove  in  air  and  stream  ^ 

Teach  me  to  know  my  kindred." 

"Let  the  naturalist,"  he  says,  in  "The  Scriptural 
Idea  of  Man,"  "bring  man  into  as  close  affinity 
with  nature  and  with  animals  as  he  pleases !  the 
closer  the  better,  if  it  be  but  distinctly  seen  that 
he  is  capable  of  dominion  and  priesthood.  Give 
us  these,  or  the  possibility  of  these,  in  man,  and 
we  ask  for  no  wider  ground  of  separation  between 
man  and  the  brutes  I  for  of  dominion,  in  the  proper 
sense  of  that  word,  dominion  over  itself,  over  na- 
ture, or  over  its  fellows,  no  brute  can  know  any- 
thing, nor  can  it  laiow  anything  of  an  intelligent 
mediation  between  nature  and  God."^ 

Because  of  the  immense  sweep  of  this  difference, 
Dr.  Hopkins  did  not  wholly  approve  the  emphasis 
with  which  the  Duke  of  Argyle  in  the  series  of  pa- 
pers on  the  "Unity  of  Nature  "  insisted  on  classify- 
ing man  with  nature.  For  him  the  freedom  of 
choice  of  his  own  end  lifted  man  into  the  realm  of 

^  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man,  p.  103. 


THE  AUTHOR.  157 

the  supernatuial,  and  he  preferred  to  chissify  him 
by  his  highest  affinities  rather  than  by  his  lowest. 

It  may  be  said  that  Dr.  Hopkins  was  not  quite 
patient  enough  with  the  newer  theory  of  man's 
origin,  and  it  is  true  that,  in  "The  Scriptural  Idea 
of  Man,"  more  than, once  he  speaks  of  the  view  of 
Darwin  as  representing  man  as  having  ascended 
from  the  ape. 

On  page  8  he  says,  "They  who  hold  that  man 
did  thus  come  up,  also  hold  that  the  first  man  was 
but  slightly  above  the  ape."  Again,  "That  a 
being  creeping  up  by  insensible  degrees  from  ape- 
hood  should  ever  have  reached,  and  esjiecially  at 
that  early  period,  the  conception  of  himself  as  in 
the  image  of  such  a  God,  and  as  rightfully  endow^ed 
with  such  a  dominion,  is  impossible."  ^ 

The  Darw^inists  have  objected  to  that  form  of 
stating  their  theory.  For  instance,  Professor  Gray, 
of  Cambridge,  who  was  a  devout  theist,  but  a 
strong  believer  in  the-law^s  of  Darwin,  says  in  the 
lectures  on  "Natural  Science  and  Keligion,"  pub- 
lished in  1880,  "Sober  evolutionists  do  not  sup- 
pose that  man  has  descended  from  monkeys.  The 
stream  must  have  branched  too  early  for  that." 

But  it  may  be  said  that  if  the  stream  did  branch 
behind  or  below  the  apes,  no  great  exception  can 
be  taken  if  the  opponent  to  evolution  speaks  of  a 
connection  for  man  with  an  animal  higher  than  the 
one  from  which  the  bifurcation  begnin.  Darwin- 
ism would  seem  to  claim  at  least  that  the  ape  is 

1  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man,  Lecture  I.  p.  8. 


158  MA  BE  HOPKINS. 

higher.     It  does   not  seem  that  this  reference   is 
unfair. 

Again,  it  may  be  said  that  Dr.  Hopkins  does  net 
fairly  admit  the  teachings  of  observed  facts  with 
respect  to  variation.  He  says:  "It  is  generally 
supposed  that  the  doctrine  of  Parwin  on  the  origin 
of  species  gives  support  to  the  theory  of  evolution 
—  it  tends  in  that  direction,  and  may  do  it  on  two 
conditions.  The  first  is,  that  there  be  produced  at 
least  one  well-established  instance  of  the  origin  of 
one  species  from  another.  That  has  not  been  done. 
Varieties  within  a  species,  as  of  pigeons,  there  are 
without  limit;  but  there  is  no  instance  of  the 
change  of  a  pigeon  into  an  eagle,  or  of  any  tendency 
in  that  direction."  ^  Probably  all  Darwinists,  even 
those  who  insist  on  the  reality  of  spiritual  forces 
and  deny  that  the  methods  which  they  bring  for- 
ward to  account  for  biological  changes  are  ade- 
quate to  produce  the  higher  faculties  of  man,  would 
object  to  Dr.  Hopkins's  way  of  stating  the  signifi- 
cance of  the  facts  of  variation.  They  would  not 
admit  that  the  fact  (if  it  be  a  fact)  that  the  pigeon 
has  not  varied  towards  an  eagle  goes  far  towards 
settling  the  question.  They  have  perhaps  not 
claimed  that  special  variation.  But  such  writers 
as  Wallace,  to  whose  acute  mind  the  variations  in 
nature  had  suggested  the  main  features  of  Dar- 
win's laws  before  they  were  published  by  Darwin, 
would  and  do  claim  that  "the  greyhound  and  the 
spaniel  were  variations  from  the  same  animal  pro- 

1  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man,  Lecture  I.  p.  15. 


THE  AUTHOR.  159 

duced  by  man's  selection."  They  do  claim  wide 
and  abundant  variations  as  still  manifest  in  nature, 
and  that  the  evidence  for  man's  descent  from  some 
ancestral  form  common  to  him  and  the  anthropoid 
apes  is  overwhelming  and  conclusive.  It  did  not 
appear  so  to  Dr.  Hopkins,  and  he  had  given  the 
matter  careful  consideration.  Whatever  may  be 
the  final  and  decisive  verdict,  we  can  have  no  doubt 
that  those  distinctions  which  he  insisted  upon  as 
dividing  man  from  all  beneath  him  are  shown  to 
be  genuine  distinctions;  features  which  have  no- 
thing answering  to  them  in  the  lower  animals,  that 
self -consciousness,  the  power  to  form  abstract  ideas, 
the  deliberate  choice  of  an  end,  and  tha  moral  na- 
ture in  man  are  not  the  outgrowth  of  any  rudi- 
ments found  in  the  animals.  That  a  pure  scientist, 
uninfluenced  by  theological  bias,  may  come  to  the 
fullest  acceptance  of  the  theory  of  natural  selection 
and  still  maintain  that  the  origin  of  the  noblest 
features  of  man's  nature  is  spiritual  and  not  mate- 
rial is  proven  by  the  positions  taken  by  Dr.  Wal- 
lace. His  last  utterance  assures  us  that  in  his 
deliberate  judgment,  "the  Darwinian  theory,  even 
where  carried  out  to  its  extreme  logical  conclusion, 
not  only  does  not  oppose,  but  lends  a  decided  sup- 
port to  the  spiritual  nature  of  man."^ 

It  is  important  to  note,  in  concluding  the  discus- 
sion on  Dr.  Hopkins's  attitude  in  respect  to  this 
subject,  that  his  method  was  wholly  in  sympathy 
with  that  of  the  evolutionist.     He  looked  for  uni- 

1  Darwinism^  p.  479. 


160  MARK  HOPKINS. 

versal  relations,  and  also  for  differentiations,  and 
all  his  teaching  was  an  exposition  of  progressive 
order  in  nature  and  in  man.  Uniformities  of  pro- 
cess and  of  law  pervade  the  universe  because  it  is  a 
universe,  the  work  of  one  author.  While  drawing 
back  with  earnestness  from  atheistic  tendencies, 
and  possibly  treating  the  argimients  of  some  writ- 
ers with  small  consideration  because  of  these  ten- 
dencies, his  teachings  as  a  whole  contributed  to  the 
acceptance  by  Christian  thinkers  of  the  conceptions 
upon  which  evolution  is  based,  and  which  it  con- 
firms. His  disagreement  with  the  theistic  evolu- 
tionist w^as  mostly  a  disagreement  in  definitions. 
It  is  perhaps  just  to  say  that  the  positions  taken  on 
this  subject  in  "The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man"  do 
not  seem,  to  correspond  fully  to  the  general  method 
and  scope  of  his  philosophy. 

"The  Law  of  Love  and  Love  as  a  Law"  was 
published  in  1869.  In  it  is  found  the  clearest  and 
best  statement  of  the  views  in  morals  to  which  Dr. 
Hopkins  came  after  years  of  study.  These  views, 
it  is  worth  while  to  note  again,  were  not  derived 
from  any  previous  philosopher,  but  were  his  own 
solution  of  the  deepest  problems  in  moral  phi- 
losophy. Similar  views  had  been  held  by  other 
thinkers.  Amons:  the  earlier  writers  who  had  in  a 
measure  anticipated  the  system  of  Dr.  Hopkins 
were  Shaftesbury  and  Hutcheson.  Hutcheson's 
views  in  morals,  which  Dr.  McCosh  regards  as 
largely  derived  from  Shaftesbury,  have  striking  re- 
semblances to  those  of  Dr.  Hoj)kins.      He  does  not 


THE  AUTHOR.  161 

formally  work  out  the  doctrine  of  ends,  but  moral 
excellence  consists  in  "benevolence,"  and  the  love 
"  of  moral  excellence  and  love  to  the  mind  where  it 
resides  with  the  consequent  acts  of  esteem,  venera- 
tion, trust,  and  resignation,  are  the  essence  of  true 
piety  toward  God.  We  never  speak  of  benevo- 
lence toward  God,  as  that  word  carries  with  it 
some  supposal  of  indigence  or  want  of  some  good 
in  the  object.  And  yet  as  we  have  benevolence 
toward  a  friend  when  he  may  need  our  assistance, 
so  the  same  emotion  of  soul  or  the  same  disposi- 
tion toward  him  shall  remain  when  he  is  raised  to 
the  best  state  we  can  wish :  and  it  then  exerts  itself 
in  congratulation,  or  rejoicing  in  his  happiness.  In 
this  manner  may  our  souls  be  aifected  toward  the 
Deity  without  any  supposition  of  his  indigence  by 
the  highest  joy  and  complacence  in  his  absolute 
happiness."^  From  all  this  it  is  very  plain  that 
Hutch eson  would  wholly  agree  with  Dr.  Hopkins 
that  we  should  love  God,  not  "because  it  is  right," 
but  "because  He  is  wholly  worthy  of  love." 

A  passage  like  the  following  contains  implicitly 
Dr.  Hopkins's  doctrine  of  "the  conditioning  and 
the  conditioned,"  and  can  be  almost  literally  paral- 
leled by  sentences  from  "The  Law  of  Love"  and 
"  The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man :  "  "  The  selfish  affec- 
tions are  then  only  disapproved  when  we  imagine 
them  beyond  that  innocent  proportion,  so  as  to 
exclude  or  overpower  the  amiable  affections,  and 
engross  the  mind  whoUy  to  the  purposes  of  selfish- 

1  Hutcheson's  System  of  Moral  Philosophy,  vol.  i.  p.  70. 


162  MARK  HOPKINS. 

ness,  or  even  to  obstruct  the  proper  degree  of  the 
generous  affections  in  the  station  and  circiunstances 
of  the  agent."  ^ 

Notwithstanding  the  close  resemblances  in  these 
systems,  it  does  not  appear  that  Dr.  Hopkins  had 
made  a  study  of  Hutcheson.  The  fact  that  he  does 
not  mention  him  among  the  authors  whose  theories 
on  the  foundation  of  "obligation"  he  discusses  in 
the  introduction  to  "The  Law  of  Love"  plainly 
precludes  his  acquaintance  with  him.  His  fuller 
analysis  and  development  of  views  presented  by 
one  who  has  been  called  "the  founder  of  the  Scot- 
tish philosophy"  is  extremely  interesting;  it  is  all 
the  more  so,  because  it  is  wholly  independent  of 
the  earlier  author.  Several  distingTiished  writers 
contemporary  with  Dr.  Hopkins  published  trea- 
tises that  present  fundamental  conceptions  quite 
the  same,  as,  for  instance,  Janet  in  France,  and 
Martineau  in  England.  The  doctrine  of  ends  is 
as  old  as  Aristotle.  Dr.  Hopkins  was  primarily 
a  thinker  and  not  a  reader,  and  the  value  of  his 
solution  is  greatly  enhanced  by  the  fact  that  the 
steps  which  led  to  it  were,  so  far  as  he  was  con- 
cerned, along  a  path  absolutely  new.  That  to  reach 
his  final  conclusions  he  gave  up  the  doctrine  of 
right  as  ultimate,  which  he  had  long  held,  attests 
the  candor  and  earnestness  of  his  thinking. 

Soon  after  the  publication  of  the  book,  a  review 
of  it  appeared  in  the  "New  York  Observer"  from 
the  pen  of   the  Rev.  Dr.  McCosh.   of  Princeton, 

1  Hritcheson's  System  of  Moral  Philosojjhy,  vol.  i.  p.  65. 


THE  AUTHOR.  163 

New  Jersey.  It  was  courteous,  but  plainly  charged 
the  doctrine  of  the  author  with  utilitarianism  or  at 
least  with  eudaemonism.^  The  article  was  courte- 
ous, but  probably  all  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  pupils  felt 
that  the  introductory  remark  that  the  "reading  of 
Dr.  Hopkins  like  that  of  Edwards  seems  confined, 
and  confined  to  rather  commonplace  works,"  was 
somewhat  one  side  of  the  points  at  issue.  There 
was  a  feeling,  too,  that  Dr.  McCosh  could  not  well 
appreciate  the  burdens  which  Dr.  Hopkins  had  had 
to  carry  in  the  management  of  the  isolated  college, 
burdens  that  were  pressing  upon  him  at  that  time 
with  peculiar  weight,  and  that  there  was  a  note  of 
insular  pride  in  the  remark  quoted  above  not  quite 
worthy  of  the  high  discussion.  However  that  may 
be.  Dr.  Hoj^kins's  reply  to  this  remark  was  in  the 
best  of  taste,  and  was  at  the  same  time  quite  pun- 
gent. He  says:  "While  I  acknowledge  fully  the 
want  of  reading  referred  to  by  Dr.  McCosh  and 
regret  it,  I  may  be  permitted  to  say  that  on  this 
subject  he  has  presented  no  point  that  I  had  not 
seen,  and  has  raised  no  objection  that  I  had  not 
considered." 

The  main  point  at  issue  between  these  two  emi- 
nent thinkers  was  the  foundation  of  the  obligation 

1  A  criticism  by  Dr.  McCosh  on  Huteheson's  system  may  be 
■well  quoted  here  as  showing  the  same  tendency  in  his  thought 
as  in  that  of  Dr.  Hopkins.  Dr.  McCosh  says :  "  Huteheson's 
theory  of  virtue  thus  comes  to  be  an  exalted  kind  of  eudajmon- 
ism,  with  God  giving  us  a  moral  sense  to  approve  of  the  promo- 
tion of  happiness  without  our  discovering  the  consequences  of 
actions."     The  Scottish  Fhilosophy,  p.  80. 


164  MAEE  HOPKINS. 

to  do  right  felt  by  every  thoughtful  mind.  With 
Dr.  McCosh,  in  the  search  for  a  foundation  there 
could  really  be  no  answer  to  the  question,  "Why 
ought  I  to  love  my  fellow-men  ?  Why  ought  I  to 
love  God  and  to  love  Him  more  than  I  love  even 
my  fellow-men?  To  ?/s,  whatever  there  may  be  to 
higher  intelligence,  there  can  be  no  answer  but  one, 
and  that  is,  that  I  ought  to  do  so.  And  if  any  one 
puts  the  other  question,  'How  do  I  come  to  know 
this  ? '  there  is  but  one  answer,  and  this  is  that 
it  is  self  evident."  In  other  words,  "an  action  is 
right  because  it  is  right,  and  that  is  the  end  of 
it." 

Dr.  Hopkins  was  not  contented  with  that  view. 
He  had  long  held  it,  and  pleasantly  says  to  his  for- 
mer j)upils  in  his  introduction  to  the  "Lectures  on 
Moral  Science:"  "When  the  lectures  were  first 
written,  the  text-book  here  and  generally  in  our 
colleges  was  Paley;  not  agreeing  with  him,  and 
failing  to  carry  out  fully  the  doctrine  of  ends,  I 
adopted  that  of  an  ultimate  right  as  taught  by 
Kant  and  Coleridge,  making  that  the  end.  If, 
therefore,  any  of  you  still  hold  that  view,  as  doubt- 
less many  do,  it  is  not  for  me  to  say  that  you 
have  not  good  authority  for  it,  or  to  complain  if 
you  object  to  that  now  taken." 

Working  out  his  doctrine  of  the  "conditioning 
and  conditioned"  under  the  principle  that  all  ra- 
tional action  is  for  an  end,  he  came  to  the  position 
that  "a  reason  can  always  be  given  why  an  action 
is  right,  and  that  vrithout  a  sensibility  the  quality 


THE  AUTHOR.  165 

of  right  in  an  action  regarded  as  moral  could  not 
exist."  "In  seeking  the  foundation  of  obligation, 
I  suppose  moral  beings  to  exist.  As  having  intelli- 
gence and  sensibility,  I  suppose  them  capable  of 
apprehending  ends  good  in  themselves,  and  an  end 
thus  good  that  is  ultimate  and  supreme.  In  the 
apprehension  of  such  an  end,  I  suppose  the  moral 
reason  must  affirm  obligation  to  choose  it,  and  that 
all  acts  that  will,  of  their  own  nature,  lead  to  the 
attainment  of  that  end  are  right."  ^ 

Dr.  McCosh  took  exception  to  Dr.  Hopkins's 
position  that  because  "a  good"  or  "the  good"  re- 
sults from  right  action,  or,  in  other  words,  because 
all  action  arising  under  the  choice  of  an  ultimate 
and  supreme  end  would  issue  in  the  highest  good 
to  the  individual  choosing  and  to  all  others,  that 
therefore  the  good  is  the  highest  ultimate  end. 
There  was  to  him  a  savor  of  low  origin  to  a  good 
that  would  in  our  language  express  both  enjoy- 
ment and  blessedness.  Nor  will  he  judge  Dr.  Hop- 
kins free  from  a  taint  of  "utilitarianism,"  though 
Dr.  Hopkins  affirms  that  he  does  not  mean  our  own 
good  exclusively,  but  "that  of  all  conscious  be- 
ings." Dr.  Hopkins  repels  the  significance  of  that 
charge  adroitly.  For  him  there  is  nothing  objec- 
tionable in  the  thing  utilitarianism,  "unless  it  op- 
poses self  to  love  and  happiness  to  duty."  He 
does  not  mind  being  called  a  utilitarian,  if  only  he 
is  clearly  understood  to  require  disinterested  love, 
supremely  that  of  God  and  the  love  of  the  neigh- 

^  Law  of  Love  and  Love  as  a  Law,  first  edition,  p.  26. 


166  MARK  HOPKINS. 

bor  as  ourselves ;  provided  also  it  is  seen  that  he 
holds  it  "absurd  to  suppose  that  anything  could 
excuse  a  man  from  doing  what  he  ought  to  do." 
Having,  then,  shown  that  in  his  view  of  love  and 
also  of  duty  there  is  no  "objectionable"  utilita- 
rianism, he  proceeds  to  show  that  his  system  in 
which  these  two,  love  and  duty,  are  married,  is 
also  free  from  the  taint.  He  insists,  however,  on 
returning  to  the  main  question,  which  is  not  about 
the  categorical  imperative:  "Not  at  all  about  un- 
compromising obedience  or  duty,  when  that  is  made 
known,  but  whether  the  very  idea  of  duty  is  pos- 
sible except  through  that  of  a  good  from  the  sensi- 
bility and  so  of  a  possible  love."  He  laments  the 
lack  in  our  language  of  a  word  that  shall  compass 
the  whole  range  of  feeling,  but  will  not  budge  one 
iota  from  his  position  that  "sensibility  is  the  con- 
dition precedent  of  all  moral  ideas."  He  seizes 
Dr.  McCosh's  illustration  that  seems  intended  to 
prove  that  there  may  be  virtue  without  sensibility, 
and  finds  it  a  rediictio  ad  absurdiim.  Nor  can 
any  one  deny  that  his  treatment  of  the  illustration 
is  perfectly  fair  and  just.  Dr.  Hopkins  says,  re- 
ferring to  Dr.  McCosh  and  quoting  his  very  words, 
"He  puts  the  case  that  God  creates  an  angelic 
being  with  high  intellectual  endowments,  but  with- 
out sensibility,  and  then  affirms  and  founds  a  prin- 
ciple on  it,  that  such  a  being  would  be  under  obli- 
gation to  be  grateful  to  God,  while  yet  gratitude 
is  a  form  of  the  sensibility,  and  obligation  itself 
cannot  be  conceived  of  without  it." 


THE  AUTHOR.  167 

Dr.  McCosli  seems  to  see  the  point  on  "  sensibil- 
ity "  and  "gratitude,"  for  in  his  next  paper  his 
"intelligent  being  "is  endowed  at  the  outset  by 
God  with  "lofty  reason,  pure  fancy,  and  rich  emo- 
tions." This  intelligent  moral  being  should  cherish 
"gratitude  and  love  towards  his  benefactor." 

After  Dr.  Hopkins  has  thus  defended  his  own 
theory,  he  proceeds  to  attack  that  of  Dr.  McCosh, 
and  to  assert  that  the  system  based  on  an  ultimate 
right  is  not  consistent  with  the  Scriptures.  Taking 
the  law  of  love,  he  affirms  that  "the  love  is  to  be  a 
simple  primitive  act  in  view  of  the  object  as  worthy 
of  love."  Dr.  McCosh  denies  this,  and  asserts: 
"  We  regard  God  as  having  a  claim  upon  our  love, 
because  it  is  right  and  men  see  it  to  be  so  at  once." 
"No,"  says  Dr.  Hopkins,  "we  do  not  love  Him  be- 
cause it  is  right,  but  because  He  is  worthy  of  our 
love."  "If  w^e  love  God  not  for  his  own  sake 
but  for  the  sake  of  the  right,  we  put  right  above 
God."  Then  growing  warm  in  his  attack  he  adds: 
"I  have  seen  quite  enough  of  this  abstract,  hard, 
godless,  loveless  love  of  right  and  virtue,  instead 
of  the  love  of  God  and  of  men."  "Wherever  this 
system  has  been  fully  received,  it  has  tended  to 
fanaticism." 

Hereupon  he  makes  an  assertion  that  Dr.  Mc- 
Cosh seems  in  his  reply  to  disprove.  In  his  abso- 
lute faith  in  the  reasonableness  of  his  doctrine  and 
its  harmon}^  with  the  Scriptures  he  says:  "The 
Scriptures  nowhere  command  me  to  do  right  because 
it  is  right."     "Do  they  not ?"  says  Dr.  McCosh. 


168  MARK  HOFKIXS. 

*'Does  not  Paul  say,  'Children,  obey  your  parents 
in  the  Lord,  for  this  is  right,'  just,  due?"  But 
perhaps  the  appearance  here  is  only  an  appear- 
ance. Dr.  Hopkins  replies :  "The  passage  quoted 
by  Dr.  McCosh  is  the  only  one  in  the  Bible  that 
seems  to  say  we  are  'to  do  right  because  it  is 
right, '  but  that  does  not  say  it,  and  scarcely  seems 
to.  If  it  said  that,  no  further  question  could  be 
asked.  The  theory  of  morals  would  be  settled. 
What  it  does  say  is,  that  children  should  obey 
their  parents  because  it  is  right,  and  that  leaves 
the  question,  why  is  it  right  to  obey  parents?  where 
it  was  before."  Dr.  McCosh  had  made  the  words 
"just,"  "due  "  the  equivalent  of  "right "  in  the  text 
quoted.  Was  it  quite  fair  to  intimate  that  "just " 
and  "due"  had  the  same  meaning  as  "right"  in 
the  discussion?  If  so,  it  would  seem  that  every 
other  apostolic  adjective  expressing  what  is  praise- 
worthy is  equally  tantamount  to  "right."  "Hon- 
est," "lovely,"  "pure,"  of  " good  report, "  are  these 
too  "right"?  If  so,  on  Dr.  McCosh's  principles 
we  can  give  no  analysis  of  these  virtues,  what  is 
right  is  right,  what  is  honest  is  honest,  and  "that 
is  the  end  of  it." 

Dr.  Hopkins  appeals  to  the  whole  tenor  of  the 
Scriptures.  "Our  Saviour  opened  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  and  every  beatitude  by  speaking  of 
blessedness."  On  the  whole,  the  appeal  to  the 
Scripture  seems  to  support  Dr.  Hopkins,  but  Dr. 
McCosh,  in  his  final  allusion  to  this  point,  insists 
that  "the  word  of  God  in  its  spirit  and  letter  op- 


THE  AUTHOR.  169 

poses  that  theory  which  makes  iiiairs  highest  end 
to  be  enjoyment."  Did  Dr.  Hopkins  ever  say  that 
man's  highest  end  is  enjoyment?  Is  it  a  fair  in- 
ference from  any  of  his  statements,  even  in  the 
first  edition  of  the  book  (in  the  revised  edition  such 
an  inference  is  most  carefully  warded  off),  that  the 
end,  the  highest  end,  of  man  is  sensitive  enjoyment? 
Does  not  the  following  passage,  candidly  consid- 
ered, render  such  an  inference  impossible?  "I  will 
only  add  that  where  moral  order  reigns,  good  from 
all  forms  of  sensibility  is  distributed  according  to 
character;  that  though  a  man  may  be  called  to 
oppose  for  a  time  his  moral  convictions  to  all  that 
he  can  suffer  through  natural  sensibility,  yet  that 
this  cannot  be  permanent  under  a  righteous  moral 
government ;  and  that  the  good  of  each  is  so  a  part 
of  the  whole  that  obligation  on  the  part  of  any  in- 
dividual to  sacrifice  his  own  highest  good  for  the 
sake  of  the  whole  is  not  only  impossible,  but,  as 
impairing  the  very  ground  on  which  obligation  is 
affirmed,  is  absurd."^ 

How  can  a  man  "oppose  for  a  time  his  moral 
convictions  to  all  that  he  can  suffer  through  natural 
sensibility,"  if  his  highest  end  is  sensitive  enjoy- 
ment? 

At  the  close  of  Dr.  McCosh's  second  paper  there 
are  very  grave  intimations  of  heterodoxy  in  regard 
to  the  doctrines  of  eschatology  as  flowing  from  the 
theory  which  he  is  combating.  They  are  intima- 
tions only,  as  "  it  would  weary  the  readers  of  a  pop- 

^  La>v  of  Love  and  Love  as  a  Laiv,  first  edition,  p.  121. 


170  MARE  HOPKINS. 

ular  newspaper"  to  have  these  consequences  fully 
unfolded.  But  inasmuch  as  the  requirement  of  un- 
hesitating obedience,  tha  moment  obligation  is  af- 
firmed, is  insisted  upon  by  Dr.  Hopkins,  and  as 
"justice  that  has  its  basis  in  love  justifies  itself  to 
itself  even  in  becoming  indignation  and  wrath," 
it  is  somewhat  difficult  to  see  how  these  departures 
from  orthodoxy  are  a  necessary  outgrowth  of  the 
theory.  While  Dr.  Hopkins  would  not  shrink  from 
discussing  consequences,  if  anything  were  to  be 
gained  by  such  discussion,  he  prefers  once  more  to 
call  his  opponent  back  to  the  real  point.  "Let  the 
question  be  decided  on  its  merits,  that  is  the  only 
fair  way ;  and  to  aid  our  readers  in  doing  that  has 
been  my  endeavor  in  the  preceding  discussion." 

In  Dr.  McCosh's  final  summing  up  he  makes  six 
points  of  difference  between  himself  and  Dr.  Hop- 
kins. The  first  refers  to  the  relation  of  an  end  to 
the  sensibility.  Dr.  Hopkins  had  said  that  "if 
we  suppose  the  sensibility  excluded,  the  conception 
of  an  end  is  impossible."  This  Dr.  McCosh  de- 
nies, but  admits  that  "holy  enjoyment"  may  be  a 
supreme  end.  As  Dr.  Hopkins  notes,  there  can  be 
but  one  supreme  end,  and  if  Dr.  McCosh  allows 
that  "holy  enjoyment"  may  be  a  supreme  end,  his 
antagonism  to  Dr.  Hopkins  on  the  first  point  is 
essentially  modified. 

The  second  divergence  relates  to  the  mode  of  set- 
tling the  question.  Dr.  McCosh  says  that  it  must 
be  settled  "by  an  inquiry  into  the  mental  and 
moral  nature,"  and  thinks  Dr.   Hopkins  does  not 


THE  AUTHOR.  Ill 

admit  this,  and  leaves  out  the  higher  nature,  the 
moral  reason,  in  attempting  to  solve  the  problem  of 
ethics.  But  he  returns  to  the  first  point,  and  ex- 
presses new  amazement  at  Dr.  Hopkins's  statement 
that  "apart  from  sensibility  the  conception  of  an 
end  is  impossible." 

The  second  point  is  not  essentially  different  from 
the  first. 

The  third  point  of  disagreement  is  that  Dr.  Hop- 
kins gives  a  "confused  place  "  to  the  moral  reason. 
Dr.  McCosh's  position  "makes  the  sense  of  duty 
to  enter  into  the  virtuous  act  and  become  part  of 
the  end."  Dr.  Hopkins  makes  the  sense  of  duty 
"  enter  into  the  act  to  give  it  quality,  but  not  as  a 
part  of  the  end."  Dr.  Hopkins's  claim  that  "the 
end  must  be  known  before  the  sense  of  duty  can 
be  originated"  may  give  the  moral  reason  a  "eon- 
fused  place"  for  one  who  believes  in  "ultimate 
right,"  but  the  making  of  right  a  part  of  the  end 
as  "the  supreme  end"  will  not  seem  less  "con- 
fused "  to  one  who  has  really  grasped  the  complete 
harmony  which  follows  the  acceptance  of  "the  su- 
preme good  of  all"  as  the  end  of  virtuous  action. 
It  may  turn  out  that  the  benevolence  of  God  can 
only  be  maintained  under  this  theory. 

The  fourth  difference  relates  to  the  quality  of  an 
action  as  a  ground  of  obligation  to  perform  the  ac- 
tion. Do  we  perform  a  just  action  simply  because 
it  is  just,  or  is  there  underneath  the  obligation  a 
perception  that  the  doing  of  justice  will  promote 
always  and  everywhere  the  best  good  of  all?     It 


172  MARK    HOPKINS. 

is  the  application  to  practical  action  of  the  main 
point  at  issue. 

Under  the  fifth  point  Dr.  McCosh  admits  that 
"we  are  bound  as  much  as  within  us  lies  to  pro- 
mote the  happiness  of  all  beings  capable  of  joy  or 
sorrow."  But  he  says  there  is  a  moral  element  in 
this  "we  are  bound, ''^  and  revolts  at  the  idea  of  lov- 
ing God  "in  the  view  of  the  capacity  of  God  and 
other  beings  for  enjoyment."  Dr.  Hopkins  replies 
with  great  energy  to  this  that  "if  God  were  as  in- 
capable of  sensibility  as  a  rock  and  so  incapable  of 
enjoyment,  it  would  be  impossible  for  us  to  love 
Him  with  the  love  of  benevolence,  the  only  love 
commanded." 

To  the  final  point  made  by  Dr.  McCosh,  which  is 
that  the  Scriptures  are  on  his  side.  Dr.  Hopkins 
replies  with  great  earnestness,  as  it  is  his  final 
word.  Several  of  the  sentences  are  worth  quot- 
ing: "In  immediate  connection,  Dr.  McCosh 
speaks  of  sensitive  pain  and  sensitive  enjoyment, 
as  if  they  were  the  basis  of  my  system.  I  trust  I 
have  said  nothing  to  justify  this.  I  am  no  sensa- 
tionalist, but  a  believer  in  the  highest  form  of  in- 
tuitional and  spiritual  philosophy.  I  am  no  util- 
itarian. I  believe  in  a  good  that  is  good  in  itself 
and  to  be  sought  for  its  own  sake !  and  in  disinter- 
ested love  of  beings  who  are  capable  of  happiness, 
quite  as  much,  too,  as  if  they  were  not.  In  my 
two  books  I  have  examined  the  constitution  of  man 
in  its  relation  both  to  nature  and  the  Bible.  I 
have  found  from  that,  that  the  law  of  the  constitu- 


THE  AUTHOR.  173 

tion  is  the  law  of  the  Bible.  That  law  —  tJie  law 
of  love  —  I  accept  and  endeavor  to  enforce,  simply 
that.  I  build  no  half-way  house.  I  bring  in  no- 
thing 'surreptitiously.'  I  steal  no  element.  I  do 
not  subordinate  virtue  to  happiness,  but  find  a  har- 
mony between  them.  ...  I  simply  find  the  moral 
law,  the  one  law  for  myself  and  for  all  others,  im- 
personal and  impartial,  and  have  as  little  to  do  with 
this  terrible  enjoyment  as  is  possible  under  a  law 
that  requires  me  to  promote  it  in  its  purest  form 
and  in  the  highest  degree."  ^ 

The  debate  excited  great  interest,  and  was  in 
every  way  worthy  of  its  subject  and  of  the  dispu- 
tants. It  was  upon  the  theory  of  virtue,  between 
two  thinkers  who  had  spent  a  great  part  of  their 
lives  in  the  noblest  efforts  to  train  young  men  to 
the  acceptance  of  Christianity  and  to  the  exhibition 
of  Christian  character.  It  was  perhaps  regarded 
by  the  pupils  of  each  as  ended  to  the  advantage  of 
their  own  teacher.  The  progress  of  truth  is  always 
attended  by  controversies,  and  it  is  fortunate  indeed 
when,  as  in  this  case,  each  of  the  disputants  can 
recognize  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  of  the  con- 
flict the  honorable  motives  and  lofty  purposes  of 
the  other.  The  acceptance  of  the  doctrine  of  ends 
as  here  applied  is  probably  becoming  more  general, 
and  the  wonder  may  yet  be  that  a  doctrine  so  sim- 
ple and  so  harmonious  with  the  other  facts  of 
man's   nature   should  ever   have  been   difficult  of 

^  This  discussion  is  published  as  an  appendix  to   Dr    Hopkins's 
The  Law  of  Love  and  Love  as  a  Law,  revised  edition. 


174  MARK  HOPKINS. 

acceptance  for  minds  of  philosophic  power.  The 
tenacity  with  which  the  ablest  minds  cling  to  a  po- 
sition once  assumed  illustrates  at  once  the  strength 
and  the  weakness  of  human  nature.  A  funda- 
mental opinion  enters  into  all  other  opinions,  and 
gives  color  and  coherence  to  the  general  think- 
ing, and  this  coherence  reinforces  the  fundamental 
belief. 

In  the  preface  to  the  revised  edition  of  "  The  Law 
of  Love  and  Love  as  a  Law,"  published  in  1881, 
Dr.  Hopkins  speaks  of  the  changes  introduced 
into  the  book,  and  assigns  reasons  for  them.  One 
of  these  reasons  rested  upon  a  desire  to  bring  the 
book  into  greater  harmony  with  "An  Outline 
Study  of  Man,"  which  had  been  published  since 
the  first  edition  was  issued.  Another  reason  for 
some  chans^es  arose  from  the  conviction  that  the 
method  of  teaching  by  diagrams  which  had  been 
adopted  in  later  years  in  the  psychological  work 
might  profitably  be  carried  over  into  moral  science. 
He  adds  a  third  reason,  a  wish  "by  giving  the  sys- 
tem more  unity  to  state  it,  so  that  it  might  be  more 
readily  apprehended." 

In  spite  of  this  definitely  formed  purpose  some 
will  be  inclined  to  doubt  whether  the  foundation  of 
the  system  is  made  clearer  in  the  re\dsed  than  in 
the  first  edition.  To  the  chapters  on  "obligation  " 
in  the  first  edition,  any  one  who  wishes  an  under- 
standing of  the  initial  principles  may  well  be  re- 
ferred. The  cogency  with  which  the  sensibility  is 
presented  as  underlying  all  moral  ideas,  and  with 


THE  AUTHOR.  175 

which  a  good,  as  an  end,  is  shown  to  be  a  condition 
for  obligation,  is  not  surpassed,  if  equaled,  in  any 
of  the  subsequent  discussion  of  the  questions  in- 
volved. 

The  criticisms  of  Dr.  McCosh  did  not  in  the 
least  affect  his  confidence  in  the  truth  of  the  sys- 
tem, and  probably  did  not  affect  his  presentation 
of  it.  But  the  fine  passage  on  the  m'arrying  of 
"Love  and  Law,"  quoted  by  Dr.  McCosh  from 
page  108  of  the  first  edition,  loses  something  of  its 
freshness  in  the  revised  edition.  The  revision 
made  the  system  more  systematic,  a  completer, 
rounder  whole,  but  scarcely  more  winning  or  more 
convincing  to  the  beginner.  For  the  readers  who 
gained  by  long  acquaintance  with  Dr.  Hopkins 
insiofht  into  the  movement  of  his  mind  and  in- 
creasing  achniration  and  affection  for  the  solidity 
of  his  character,  there  is  scarcely  any  book  of  his 
making  so  interesting,  and  scarcely  any  that  ex- 
hibits so  distinctly,  that  combination  of  intellectual 
sharpness  and  conciseness  and  enthusiasm  which 
marks  his  best  writing  as  the  first  edition  of  this 
treatise. 

"An  Outline  Study  of  Man,"  published  in  1873, 
like  Dr.  Hopkins's  other  books,  grew  directly  out 
of  his  teaching.  The  substance  of  it  had  been  de- 
livered as  lectures  before  the  Lowell  Institute  the 
previous  year.  These  lectures  were  given  in  an  in- 
formal way,  and  a  phonographic  report  formed  the 
basis  of  the  book.  It  illustrates  more  perfectly, 
perhaps,  than  any  other  book    the  method  of  his 


176  MABK  HO r KINS. 

teaching.  By  short,  concise  definitions  and  differ- 
entiations perfectly  simple  and  clear,  he  made  the 
progress  of  the  pupil  easy  and  sure.  This  book 
more  than  any  other  exhibits  a  resemblance  in 
mind  and  character  that  has  seemed  to  me  to  exist 
in  him  to  the  German  Lessing.  Lessing  was  a 
great  teacher.  The  debt  of  the  Germans  to  him 
for  services  in  giving  correct  canons  for  language 
and  literature  is  immense.  Dr.  Hopkins  cannot 
be  regarded  as  a  pioneer  of  influence  anything  like 
so-  vast,  and  was  greatly  inferior  in  learning.  But 
he  went  on  his  own  feet  in  a  straight  path,  as  did 
Lessing,  and  accepted  the  tenets  of  no  master.  He 
had  the  luminous  intelligence  that  comes  from  the 
pure  reason,  and  it  w^as  the  play  of  this  that  made 
his  discourse  so  convincing  and  satisfying.  Some- 
thing of  what  Lowell  says  of  Johnson  and  Lessing 
was  also  undoubtedly  true  of  Dr.  Hopkins.  ''  Both 
had  something  of  the  intellectual  sluggishness  that 
is  apt  to  go  with  great  strength ;  and  both  had  to 
be  baited  by  the  antagonism  of  circumstances  or 
opinions,  not  only  into  the  exhibition,  but  into  the 
possession  of  their  entire  force.  Both  may  be  more 
properly  called  original  men  than  in  the  highest 
sense  original  writers." 

Dr.  Hopkins  had  a  spiritual  insight  that  lifted 
him  into  a  region  whose  air  Lessing  did  not 
breathe.  Lessing  did  not  concern  himself  with 
man  as  a  fallen  being,  but  chiefly  with  literature 
and  art.  For  all  that  his  thought  was  so  largely 
of  the  beautiful  and  the  true,  the  general  impres- 


THE  AUTHOR.  177 

sion  of  his  character,  while  thoroughly  manly,  was 
not  so  beneficent  as  that  of  the  simple  college  presi- 
dent. 

In  the  ''Outline,"  the  discussion  of  Perception 
and  Consciousness,  the  distinction  made  between 
the  natural  and  the  supernatural,  that  between  the 
supernatural  and  the  miraculous,  and  the  division 
of  the  necessary  products  into  three  classes,  those 
arising  in  the  intellect  alone,  those  resulting  from 
the  combined  operation  of  intellect  and  feeling,  and 
those  from  intellect,  sensibility,  and  will,  are  among 
the  newer  points  of  the  book,  and  show  well  the  au- 
thor's power  of  illumination.  The  diagrams  in  the 
book,  and  particularly  that  at  the  end,  were  of  great 
value  in  his  judgment,  and  are  extremely  interest- 
ino-  as  presenting  the  absolute  definiteness  w^ith 
which  man's  nature  and  powers  were  gTaduated  in 
his  mind.  The  wide  use  of  the  book  in  schools  and 
colleges,  especially  in  those  institutions  where  stu- 
dents not  highly  trained  by  severe  discipline  under- 
take the  examination  of  the  mental  constitution,  at- 
tests the  great  clearness  of  the  presentation.  Its 
brief  examination  of  the  body  as  the  dwelling-place 
of  mind  is  the  author's  anticipation  of  the  modern 
"Physiological  Psychology."  The  book  does  not 
leave  the  student  in  the  fog  that  accompanies  so 
much  of  the  learned  teaching  of  intellectual  philos- 
ophy. A  thorough  mastery  of  this  treatise  has 
been  of  immense  service  to  many  college  graduates, 
and  though  it  may  be  said  that  Dr.  Hopkins's  stu- 
dents did  not  many  of  them  become  specialists  in 


178  MABK  HOPKINS. 

philosophy,  it  has  not  been  said  th^t  they  did  not 
become  men. 

From  ''The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man,"  the  last 
important  work  published  by  Dr.  Hopkins,  quota- 
tions have  already  been  given.  This  book  is  his 
final  contribution  to  the  exhibition  of  the  harmony 
of  Scripture  with  reason,  and  is  the  rij^est  fruit  of 
his  thinking.  It  has  a  unique  value,  and  to  it  the 
student  of  his  thought  may  be  referred  for  proof 
that  he,  like  Lessing,  was  ever  advancing  and  gain- 
ing new  apprehension  of  many-sided  truth,  but 
that,  unlike  any  mere  metaphysician  or  scholar,  he 
had  early  found  in  the  revelation  culminating  in 
"the  man,  Christ  Jesus,"  such  perfection  of  wis- 
dom and  reason  that  all  growth  meant  simply  a 
fuller  apprehension  of  the  divine  Master.  To  this 
book  further  references  will  be  made  in  a  later 
chapter. 

Before  Dr.  Hopkins  left  New  Haven  after  the 
delivery  of  the  lectures  on  ''The  Scriptural  Idea 
of  Man,"  the  faculty  of  the  Theological  Seminary 
invited  him  to  give  another  course  of  lectures  the 
following  year.  After  some  hesitation  he  accepted 
the  invitation,  and  prepared  and  delivered  six  lec- 
tures on  "The  Scriptural  Idea  of  God."  These 
lectures,  dealing  with  the  most  profound  questions, 
are  equal  in  scope  and  power  to  any  of  his  earlier 
work.  They  were,  however,  never  published,  as 
there  were  certain  points  which  he  planned  to  de- 
velop more  perfectly,  and  thus  to  give  the  series 
a  more  symmetrical  unity.      Perhaps  the  fact  that 


THE  AUTHOR.  179 

certain  points  of  the  discussions  appear  in  some 
of  his  other  works  tended  to  delay  the  revision. 
It  will  be  naturally  a  source  of  regret  to  all  Dr. 
Hopkins's  pupils  that  the  lectures  are  not  accessi- 
ble as  a  companion  volume  to  "  The  Scriptural  Idea 
of  Man,"  and  a  final  expression  of  his  views  on  the 
nature  and  attributes  of  God. 


As  snow  those  inward  pleadings  fall, 
As  soft,  as  bright,  as  pure,  as  cool, 
With  gentle  weight  and  gradual 
And  sink  into  the  feverish  soul." 

Cakdinal  Newman,  St.  Philip  in  his  God. 


THE   PREACHER. 


The  riddle  of  the  world  is  understood 

Only  by  him  who  feels  that  God  is  good, 

As  only  he  can  feel  who  makes  his  love 

The  ladder  of  faith,  and  climbs  above 

On  th'  rounds  of  his  best  instincts  ;  draws  no  line 

Between  mere  human  goodness  and  divine, 

But,  judging  God  by  what  in  him  is  best, 

With  a  child's  trust  leans  on  a  Father's  breast, 

And  hears  unmoved  the  old  creeds  babble  still 

Of  kingly  power  and  dread  caprice  of  will, 

Chary  of  blessing,  prodigal  of  curse, 

The  pitiless  doomsman  of  the  universe. 

Can  Hatred  ask  for  love  ?     Can  Selfishness 

Invite  to  self-denial  ?     Is  He  less 

Than  man  in  kindly  dealing  ?     Can  He  break 

His  own  great  law  of  fatherhood,  forsake 

And  curse  His  children  ?     Not  for  earth  and  heaven 

Can  separate  tables  of  the  law  be  given. 

No  rule  can  bind  which  He  himself  denies  ; 

The  truths  of  time  are  not  eternal  lies." 

Whittier,  In  Quest. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

THE   PREACHER. 

Dr.  Hopkins  early  learned  to  think  in  the  pres- 
ence of  an  audience.  His  preaching  in  the  college 
chapel  was  uniformly  extemporaneous,  and  was 
often  strikingly  effective  from  the  combination  of 
close  logical  thought  and  apt  illustration.  Some  of 
the  students,  when  I  was  in  college,  took  notes  of 
his  sermons,  which  were  then  quite  unifoi'mly  doc- 
trinal, and  wrote  them  out  fully.  Doctrinal  preach- 
ing for  undergraduates  seems  now  less  suitable  than 
formerly,  and  it  was  certainly  an  evidence  of  great 
power  that  Sunday  after  Sunday  Dr.  Hopkins ,  when 
president,  preached  a  solid,  logical  sermon,  and  kept 
the  attention  of  the  students.  Those  sermons  were 
an  education  to  some  of  the  maturer  boys,  and  now 
and  then  an  impression  was  made  that  was  never 
forgotten.  The  critical  and  skeptical  books  of  the 
time  were  often  touched  upon,  not  always  by  name, 
but  always  with  a  keenness  that  excited  discussion 
among  those  who  understood  the  allusions.  His 
written  sermons,  of  which  the  best  examples  are 
those  preached  before  the  graduating  classes,  are 
amons:  the  finest  illustrations  of  his  skill  as  a  writer 
and  his  power  as  a  thinker. 

The  baccalaureate  sermon  has  been  a  distinctive 


184  IMAJRK  HOPKINS. 

feature  of  the  New  England  college,  and  of  the  col- 
leges modeled  after  it.  As  it  has  commonly  been 
preached  by  the  highest  officer  of  the  college,  and 
is  the  last  formal  act  of  instruction  given  to  a  body 
of  young  men  who  have  spent  together  four  form- 
ative years  in  liberal  study,  it  has  served  to  mark 
the  high  estimate  put  upon  religious  instruction  by 
our  fathers,  and  to  exhibit  in  a  concrete  way  their 
purpose  to  subordinate  all  training  to  Christian 
doctrine  and  life.  Few  scenes  are  more  impressive 
than  when,  even  though  a  graduating  class  is  not 
very  large,  a  president,  eminent  for  learning  and 
glowing  with  love  for  the  divine  Master,  whose 
daily  life  has  been  among  and  in  his  pupils,  having 
put  into  one  compact  utterance  some  deep  lesson 
suggssted  by  the  studies  of  the  year,  delivers  this 
lesson  on  the  last  Sunday  of  the  academical  year  to 
his  retiring  pupils,  and  enforces  it  by  a  personal 
and  practical  charge  to  conform  the  life  to  its 
meaning.  Such  a  sermon  is  almost  certain  to  issue 
in  an  exaltation  of  the  divine  Christ  as  the  true 
friend,  example,  and  Redeemer.  The  momentous 
possibilities  lying  before  the  young  men,  the  throng 
of  memories  for  them  from  the  past,  the  near  dis- 
solution of  precious  companionships,  the  pathetic 
significance  of  what  might  hfrve  been,  touch  the 
imagination  of  the  observer,  and  give  for  all  to  the 
last  lesson  great  dignity  and  tenderness. 

The  delivery  of  one  of  these  sermons  by  Dr. 
Hopkins  was  always  an  event  of  great  interest  to 
those  who  had  once  heard  him  in  this  relation.     In 


THE  PREACHER.  185 

this  act  he  seemed  to  gather  up  and  concentrate 
his  greatness,  and  to  become  an  incarnation  of  the 
highest  ideal  of  the  wise  teacher. 

The  gradual  transformation  of  the  presidential 
office  into  a  career  of  simple  administration  may 
sweep  away  much  of  the  Christian  influence  of  the 
old  New  England  president.  In  no  feature  is  the 
loss  to  be  more  marked  than  in  the  substitution 
of  some  distinguished  pastor  for  the  counselor  and 
guide  of  the  Senior  year,  in  this  last  solemn  act  of 
instruct  ion. 

There  was  a  calmness  and  dignity,  an  equipoise 
of  intellect  and  emotion,  in  the  baccalaureate  dis- 
courses delivered  by  Dr.  Hopkins  that  made  them 
strikingly  effective.  The  perfect  taste  and  keen 
perception  of  beauty  that  tempered  the  sterner  lo- 
gical processes  of  his  mind  never  shone  out  more 
clearly  than  wdien  he  was  delivering  these  last 
words  to  a  company  of  his  pupils.  The  symme- 
try of  his  nature  found  perhaps  its  freest  expression 
in  these  sermons,  and  they  will  give  to  one  who 
carefully  studies  them  a  good  idea  of  his  intellec- 
tual and  moral  insight.  They  were  highly  intellec- 
tual :  but  they  exhibit  intellectual  elements  of  the 
highest  order,  gaining  effectiveness  for  the  reason 
that  these  elements  were  charged  with  love. 

In  the  sermon  delivered  to  the  class  of  1855  on 
"Perfect  Love  "  are  the  following  words,  that  give 
in  no  uncertain  tone  the  secret  of  his  own  power 
as  an  investigator  and  teacher :  — 

"It  is    a  prejudice,    as    disastrous   as  it  is  un- 


186  MARK  HOPKINS. 

founded,  that  there  can  be  a  schism  between  the 
heart  and  the  intellect  to  the  advantage  of  either. 
The  world  is  not  ready  to  receive  it,  but  it  lies  in 
our  structure,  and  must  ultimately  appear  that  the 
love  of  God  is  the  highest  ground  of  enthusiasm, 
not  only  in  the  study  of  his  w^ord,  but  of  his  works. 
They  may  indeed  be  studied  from  curiosity,  from 
ambition,  from  a  desire  even  to  disprove  the  being 
or  the  moral  government  of  God ;  and  thus  we  may 
have  sharp  disputations,  dogmatical  partisans  of 
theories;  but  the  genial,  patient,  comprehensive, 
all-reconciling  thinker  w^iU  be  most  often  found 
where  the  pale  and  dry  light  of  intellect  is  tem- 
pered by  the  warm  glow  of  love.  How  can  he  who 
has  no  love  interpret  a  universe  that  originated  in 
love  ?  The  works  of  God  are  all  expressions  of  his 
attributes,  and  thoughts,  and  feelings.  Through 
them  we  may  commune  with  him.  So  far  as  there 
is  thought  in  the  works  of  God,  it  is  his  thought. 
He  it  is  that  through  uniformities  and  resem- 
blances and  tendencies  whispers  into  the  ear  of  a 
philosophy,  not  falsely  so  called,  its  sublime  truths  : 
and  as  we  begin  to  feel  and  trace  more  and  more 
those  lines  of  relation  that  bind  all  things  into  one 
system,  the  touch  of  any  one  of  which  may  vibrate 
to  the  fixed  stars,  this  communion  becomes  high 
and  thrilling.  Science  is  no  longer  cold.  It  lives 
and  breathes  and  glows,  and  in  the  ear  of  love  its 
voice  is  always  a  hymn  to  the  Creator." 

It  has  been  a  tenet  of  scientific  thinkers,  en- 
forced especially  in  the  last  decade  or  two,  that  the 


THE  PREACHER.  187 

clear  light  of  intellect  is  to  be  brought  to  bear  upon 
the  problems  of  life  and  mind  and  society  without 
any  intermixture  of  feeling.  It  has  been  claimed 
that  all  judgments,  to  the  formation  of  which  feel- 
ing has  contributed,  are  of  doubtful  value,  not  to 
say  valueless,  and  that  the  dry,  cool  intelligence, 
utterly  dissociated  from  preferences  and  satisfac- 
tions, is  the  only  fit  guide  in  the  labyrinth  of 
modern  investigation.  The  breathing  of  this  rare- 
fied ether  is  possible  indeed  for  few,  but  those  few, 
unaffected  by  the  w^eaknesses  of  common  men, 
unmoved  by  sympathies  that  are  incipient  preju- 
dices, are  the  only  true  leaders  for  the  race.  The 
passage  above  quoted  illustrates  how  far  removed 
from  such  thought,  how  anticipative  of  its  influ- 
ence, and  how  distrustful  of  its  hardness  was  the 
mind  of  Dr.  Hopkins.  To  the  question,  "How 
can  he,  who  has  no  love,  interpret  a  universe  that 
originated  in  love?"  he  knew  that  the  agnostic 
would  answ^er,  "  How  do  you  know  that  it  originated 
in  love?  This  is  the  point  at  issue."  To  him 
Dr.  Hopkins  w^ould  have  replied :  "  Your  difficulty 
is  in  your  philosophy.  The  dry  light  of  intellect 
cannot  be  employed,  purified  of  all  feeling ;  it  can- 
not be  employed  successfully,  defecated  of  all  ad- 
miration of  beauty,  or  reverence  for  goodness.  If 
you  make  your  search  through  nature  and  human 
society  and  history,  inspired  by  those  feelings,  you 
wiU  reach  results,  and  know  realities."  "He  that 
loveth  not,  know^eth  not  God,  for  God  is  love." 
The  sermon  on  "  Spirit,  Soul,  and  Body  "  was  not 


188  MARK  HOPKINS. 

written  until  1869,  but  it  is  a  more  perfect  devel- 
opment of  the  ideas  that  underlie  the  discourse  from 
which  the  quotation  just  given  was  taken.  In  this 
sermon  he  lays  down  with  great  clearness  the  doc- 
trine which  he  believed  that  he  found  in  the  Paul- 
ine epistles,  that  the  immediate  knowledge  of  moral 
law  and  a  personal  God  is  gained  by  distinctly 
spiritual  apprehension.  He  held  that  the  soul  with 
its  recognition  of  the  truths  of  reason,  with  rea- 
soning power,  with  the  wonderful  advantages  given 
by  language,  is  that  part  of  man's  nature  by 
which  progress  in  arts,  in  sciences,  in  literature, 
in  civilization,  can  be,  under  favorable  conditions, 
rapidly  made.  Under  the  guidance  of  the  soul 
science  may  be  both  empirical  and  rational,  but 
cannot  be  theological  or,  more  exactly,  spiritual. 
Art  and  literature  may  reach  an  almost  or  quite 
perfect  condition,  as  seen  in  Greek  sculpture  and 
poetry,  but  it  may  be  questioned  whether  even  into 
the  best  examples  of  their  perfection  something  of 
a  religious  nature  from  the  spiritual  realm  is  not 
introduced. 

Certainly,  religion  as  such,  having  in  it  such  de- 
pendence on  higher  being  as  shall  involve  faith, 
worship,  and  the  regulation  of  conduct,  requires 
a  personal  relation  to  a  person.  What  takes  the 
place  of  religion  in  those  nations  and  individuals 
who  do  not  develop  the  spiritual  apprehension,  but 
direct  their  energies  to  the  tracing  simply  of  the 
natural  man,  the  soul,  is  finely  exhibited  in  the 
following    passage.      ''Religion:    what  need   have 


THE  PREACHER.  189 

we  of  that?     God:  what  need  of  Him?     Have  we 
not  force,  uniform  force,  and  do  not  all  things  con- 
tinue as  they  were  from  the  beginning  of  the  crea- 
tion, if  it  ever  had  a  beginning?    Have  we  not  the 
TO  7r5.',  the  universal  all,  the  soul  of  the  universe 
working  itself  up   from   unconsciousness   through 
molecules,  and  maggots,  and  mice,  and  marmots, 
and  monkej^s  to  its  highest  culmination  in  man? 
Certainly,  no  God  is  needed;  a  miracle  is  impossi- 
ble; or  if  possible,  it  cannot  be  proved  even  by  the 
senses,  and  the  idea  of  a  revelation  is  absurd.     If 
the  religious  nature  must  find  some  resting-place, 
let  it  make  the  unconscious  universe  with  its  sleep- 
ing capabilities  its  god:   or  let  it  frame  to  itself 
the  conception  of  a  god  whose  work  is  finished,  and 
who   is   enjoying   himself    in   everlasting   repose. 
This  is  indeed  just  what  those  who  practically  ig- 
nore the  spirit  have  always  done  and  are  doing  now. 
Yearning  and  groping  after  something  higher,  yet 
recooiiizing  only  necessary  relations  as  in  mathe- 
matics and  the  uniform  and  unconscious  forces  of 
nature,  they  transfer  what  they  thus  find,  and  only 
that,  over  to  the  infinite.      Of  this  the  result  may 
reveal  itself  in  different  forms  and  under  different 
names.     In  India  it  may  be  Brahminism  or  Bud- 
dhism.    In  Germany  it  may  be  transcendentalism, 
or  positivism,   or  pantheism.     In  this  country  it 
may  be  a  humble  imitation  and  jumble  of  them  all : 
but  the  thing  itself  and  its  paralyzing  effect  on  the 
religious  character  will  be  essentially  the   same, 
whether  at  Benares,  at  Berlin,  or  at  Boston." 


190  MABK  HOPKINS. 

The  themes  of  these  discourses  were  always  lofty, 
and  the  hearer  was  never  allowed  to  lose  sight  of 
the  loftiness  of  the  theme.  Nor  did  he  ever  feel 
that  the  treatment  was  not  wholly  worthy  of  the 
theme.  In  the  passage  first  quoted  the  glory  of 
nature  is  asserted  to  reveal  itself  to  the  loving 
intellect.  In  the  following  passage  from  the  dis- 
course on  "Strength  and  Beauty"  the  transcend- 
ing charm  of  the  affections  is  emphasized.  The 
elements  of  beauty  in  character  have  been  given 
as  "spontaneity,"  "moral  rectitude,"  and  "sym- 
metry." "With  these  elements  individual  mind 
possesses  a  beauty  far  transcending  that  of  nature, 
and  if  this  be  so  in  a  single  individual,  how  much 
more  in  a  spiritual  system,  where  every  relation  is 
responded  to  and  every  duty  met !  What  is  the 
harmony  of  music  to  the  concord  of  souls  in  true 
affection?  What  is  the  breaking  up  of  light  into 
its  seven  colors,  as  it  meets  with  the  surfaces  of 
matter,  compared  with  the  modifications  of  benev- 
olence, as  it  meets  with  the  varying  forms  of  sen- 
sitive and  intelligent  life?  What  is  the  beauty  of 
natural  scenery,  with  its  clustering  objects,  and 
contrasted  flowers  and  trees,  comj)ared  with  the 
meeting  of  a  family,  upon  no  member  of  which  a 
stain  rests,  and  where  you  see  the  gray  hairs  of  the 
patriarch,  and  the  infant  of  the  third  generation? 
AYhat  is  the  beauty  of  satellites  circling  around 
primaries,  and  primaries  around  the  sun,  compared 
with  the  order  of  families  and  the  state  —  compared 
with  the  order  of  that  moral  government,  of  which 


THE  PREACHER.  191 

God  is  the  centre  and  sun,  and  of  which  a  holy  love 
is  at  once  the  uniting  force  and  the  glory  and 
beauty?" 

The  following  passage  from  the  sermon  to  the 
class  of  1862  is  closely  related  to  the  passages  al- 
ready quoted.  It  presents  the  true  object  of  God's 
creation  both  of  matter  and  of  mind,  that  He  might 
have  conscious  subjects  in  loving  obedience  to  him- 
self and  in  active  cooperation  wdth  Him  in  promot- 
ing righteousness.  ''This  life  is  in  Christ.  He 
is  'the  life.'  This  bond  is  from  Him.  In  Him  are 
condensed  all  human  relationships  as  of  'brother 
and  sister  and  mother:  '  and  to  these,  higher  and 
holier,  that  of  Saviour  is  added.  In  Him,  as  the 
second  Adam;  in  his  matchless  character,  human, 
yet  divine ;  in  his  all-embracing  and  seK-sacrificing 
love;  in  Him  as  the  champion  of  humanity  in  its 
weakness  and  guilt,  able  and  willing  to  bring  suc- 
cor in  the  hour  of  its  direst  need  and  to  raise  it  up 
from  the  darkness  and  the  dust  of  death,  there  is 
every  requisite  for  a  centre  of  unity  for  the  race  so 
that  'all  things  which  are  on  earth  '  as  well  as  'those 
which  are  in  heaven'  may  be  gathered  together  in 
one,  even  in  Him."  In  this,  in  this  only,  is  there 
an  object  worthy  of  God.  He  has  created  worlds, 
and  families  of  worlds  of  mere  matter,  and  given 
them  a  unity  of  unspeakable  grandeur;  but  with- 
out Sensation  or  recognition,  without  enjoyment  or 
praise,  what  would  they  be  worth  ?  Nothing.  No, 
the  only  work  worthy  of  God  is  one  crowned  by 
creatures  made  in  his    image,   with  their  vitality 


192  MARK  HOPKINS. 

from  Him,  and  himself  the  centre  of  their  unity  — 
unity  in  love,  fitly  represented  by  the  marriage 
union.  This  work,  we  believe,  will  correspond  in 
its  vastness  to  that  of  the  stellar  hosts,  and  as  far 
transcend  them  in  glory  as  mind  transcends  the 
inanimate  clod.  It  will  embrace  all  orders  of 
rational  intelligences,  in  all  worlds;  sin  and  its 
consequences  will  be  eliminated,  and  it  shall  stand 
in  its  glorious  order  forever.  The  promised  new 
heavens  and  new  earth  do  not  so  much  respect  any 
new  combinations  and  miity  of  matter  as  of  con- 
scious agents;  and  they  will  be  such  that  all  that 
has  gone  before  in  the  works  of  God  will  be  as 
nothing.  'For  behold,'  says  God,  'I  create  new 
heavens  and  new  earth;  and  the  former  shall  not 
be  remembered  nor  come  into  mind.  But  be  ye 
glad  and  rejoice  forever  in  that  which  I  create;  for 
behold  I  create  Jerusalem  a  rejoicing  and  her  peo- 
ple a  joy.'" 

As  the  final  words  to  his  classes,  whose  charac- 
teristics from  year  to  year  were  somewhat  similar, 
and  yet  always  more  or  less  different,  but  whose 
moral  character  was  always  the  matter  of  the  deep- 
est solicitude  to  him,  he  never  failed  to  make  these 
discourses  vigorously  ethical.  Eloquent  passages 
of  ethical  import  are  found  in  them,  which  cannot 
fail  to  have  remained  in  the  memory  when  much 
of  the  discourse  was  forgotten.  In  the  sermon  on 
"  Strength  and  Beauty,"  from  which  a  quotation  has 
already  been  given,  there  is  a  striking  passage  on 
the  impotence  of  high  gifts  to  dignify  or  palliate 
badness  of  character :  — 


THE  PREACHER.  193 

"The  distinction  is  that  between  the  a<^ent  and 
the  instninient,  between  a  person  giving  direction 
and  that  which  is  directed.  The  relative  place  of 
these  is  to  be  carefully  noted,  because  of  the  pecu- 
liar difficulty  there  is  in  the  present  moral  state  of 
the  world  in  combining  talent  and  genius  with  a 
high  and  reverent  regard  for  duty.  This  is  not 
that  there  is  any  natural  opposition  between  them, 
but  because  the  administration  and  influence  which 
are  so  dear  to  men  possessing  talent  and  genius  are 
expected  to  follow  them  without  much  reference 
to  moral  integrity.  Now  w^hat  we  say  is  that  we 
are  not  to  overestimate  the  mere  instrument,  how- 
ever brilliant.  We  say  that  our  chief  regard  is 
due  to  that  sacred  personality,  that  moral  pres- 
ence, which  has  both  the  power  and  the  right  to  di- 
rect talent  and  genius,  and  before  which  it  is  their 
place  to  wait  and  to  bow.  We  say  that  in  any 
other  relation  talent  is  a  curse,  and  that  the  light 
of  genius  can  only  'lead  to  bewilder,  and  dazzle  to 
blind.'  We  would  honor  genius  and  talent  as 
gifts  of  God;  w^e  would  make  large  allowance,  if 
they  must  have  them,  or  think  they  must,  for  their 
peculiarities,  their  idiosyncrasies,  their  weaknesses 
even ;  but  when  those  w ho  possess  them  would  re- 
gard themselves,  and  be  regarded  by  others,  as 
privileged  persons,  whose  moral  delinquencies  are 
to  be  allowed  or  winked  at,  and  that,  too,  on  the 
very  ground  that  should  be  their  highest  condem- 
nation, we  would  utter  our  solemn  protest.  We 
say  that  the  influence  of  no  other  men  can  be  so 


194  MAEK  HOPKINS. 

hostile  to  the  best  interests  of  the  community,  if 
they  be  public  men,  to  the  liberties  of  a  free  peo- 
ple. We  say  that  no  rebuke  can  be  too  prompt  or 
severe,  when  any  man  would  practically  dignify  or 
even  palliate  meanness,  or  trickery,  or  falsehood, 
or  profaneness,  or  licentiousness,  or  corruption,  by 
associating  them  with  high  intellectual  gifts." 

In  the  sermon  to  the  class  of  1864  occur  the  fol- 
lowing solemn,  noble  words  on  the  intimate  rela- 
tion between  character  and  destiny.  "Settle  it 
therefore,  I  pray  you,  my  hearers,  once  and  forever, 
that  as  your  character  is,  so  will  your  destiny  be. 
Whatever  capacities  there  may  be  for  enjoyment 
or  for  suffering  in  this  strange  being  of  ours,  and 
God  only  knows  what  they  are,  they  will  be  drawn 
out  wholly  in  accordance  with  character.  There 
shall  be  no  inheritance  of  possessions,  or  felicity 
of  outward  condition,  no  river  of  life,  or  gate  of 
pearl,  or  street  of  gold;  there  shall  be  no  serenity 
of  peace,  or  fullness  of  joy,  or  height  of  rapture,  or 
ecstasy  of  love ;  there  shall  be  no  hostile  and  venge- 
ful element,  no  lake  of  fire,  no  gnawing  worm,  no 
remorse  or  despair,  that  will  not  depend  upon 
character." 

In  the  last  baccalaureate  that  he  preached,  in 
June,  1872,  the  year  when  he  laid  down  his  presi- 
dency, there  was  a  peculiarly  touching  appeal  for 
fidelity  in  the  discharge  of  humble  duties.  This 
passes  over  into  an  affectionate  entreaty  to  foUow 
Christ,  and  is  enforced  by  a  tender  reference  to  the 
death  of  his  brother  Albert,  which  had  occurred 


THE  PREACHER.  195 

the  previous  month.  The  subject  is  "The  Circular 
and  the  Onward  Movement." 

''What  man  is  this  who  is  so  earnestly  at  work 
in  the  very  humble  employment  of  making  a  fine 
powder  still  more  fine  by  constant  attrition?  It 
is  Michael  Angelo,  grinding  the  paints  with  which 
he  is  to  paint  for  eternity.  *  The  humble  duties 
must  be  done ;  the  paints  must  be  ground ;  but  they 
will  be  ground  all  the  better,  if  we  feel  that  we  are 
to  paint  for  eternit}'  with  them.  There  are  duties 
towards  God,  indispensable,  the  highest  of  all,  but 
they  can  never  be  performed  in  the  willful  disre- 
gard or  neglect  of  any  duty  toward  man.  You  are 
never  to  forget  that  the  best  preparation  for  heaven 
is  in  that  character  which  will  fit  you  for  the  great- 
est usefulness  on  earth. 

"Since,  then,  the  problems  —  the  great  prob- 
lems in  life  —  that  come  from  the  intersection  and 
blending  of  the  circular  and  onward  movements  are 
solved  theoretically  by  Christianity;  and  since, 
through  that,  you  can  make  the  most  practically  of 
the  interests  involved  in  each  movement,  the  one 
thing  needful  for  you  is  to  be  Christians.  At  this 
hour,  when  you  are  about  to  step  into  active  life, 
and  when  so  many  voices  are  calling  you,  the  one 
voice  which  you  are  to  hear  is  that  of  Him  who 
says,  '' Foil 010  J/e.'  Hear  that  voice,  and  then 
you  will  take  your  places  under  his  banner  by  the 
side  of  those  who  are  waging  with  Him  the  great 
battle  of  aU  time.  It  is  around  Him  that  the  thick 
of  this  battle  has  always  been.     Around  Him  it  al- 


196  MARK  HOPKINS. 

ways  will  be.  Take,  then,  your  places.  You  are 
needed.  The  veterans  are  falling.  Who  shall  take 
their  place?  The  strong  men  are  fainting.  "Who 
shall  succor  them?  Go  ye,  and  the  earth  shall  be 
the  better  and  the  happier  for  your  having  lived  in 
it.  Go;  and  when  the  time  of  your  departure 
shall  come,  you  will  be  able  to  say  what  he  said, 
who  has  been  a  standard-bearer  in  this  college  for 
more  than  forty  years,  and  for  whom  both  its  chapel 
and  this  desk  are  now  draped  in  mourning.  AVhen 
consciously  dying,  and  but  just  able  to  speak,  he 
said,  'If  we  view  it  Scripturally,  death  is  but  step- 
ping out  of  one  room  in  our  Father's  house  into 
another;  and,  in  this  instance,  without  doubt,  into 
a  larger  and  pleasanter  room.'  " 

Dr.  Hopkins's  greatest  theme  was  always  the 
universal  relations  of  Christianity.  This  was  the 
deepest  motive  of  all  his  eloquence,  if  I  might  say 
so,  the  pre-moving  inspiration  of  all  his  public  ut- 
terances. This  gave  the  peculiar  scope  and  effec- 
tiveness to  those  extemporaneous  addresses  before 
the  meetings  of  the  American  Board  which  never 
failed  to  impress  deeply  the  audiences  who  heard 
them.  The  universality  of  Christ's  love,  the  all- 
embracing  sweep  of  his  death,  found  expression  in 
connection  with  nearly  every  topic.  His  preach- 
ing was  Christian  preaching  in  the  broadest  and 
truest  sense.  In  the  sermon  to  the  class  of  1852, 
on  "Receiving  and  Giving,"  he  speaks  of  Christ 
and  his  giving  in  language  that  rises  to  a  strain  of 
lofty  eloquence.     "He  gave,  not  as  he  gives  whom 


THE  PREACHER.  197 

giving  does  not  impoverish,  but  He  gave  of  his 
heart's  blood,  till  that  heart  ceased  to  beat.  He 
planted  his  cross  in  the  midst  of  the  mad  and  roar- 
ing current  of  selfishness  aggravated  to  malignity, 
and  uttered  from  it  the  mighty  cry  of  expiring  love. 
All  the  waters  heard  Him,  and  from  that  moment 
they  began  to  be  refluent  about  his  cross.  From 
that  moment  a  current  deeper  and  broader  and 
mightier  began  to  set  heavenward,  and  it  will  con- 
tinue to  be  deeper  and  broader  and  mightier,  till 
its  glad  waters  shall  encompass  the  earth  and  toss 
themselves  as  the  ocean.  And  not  alone  did  earth 
hear  that  cry.  It  pierced  the  regions  of  immensity. 
Heaven  heard  it,  and  hell  heard  it,  and  the  remot- 
est star  shall  hear  it,  testifying  to  the  love  of  God 
in  his  unspeakable  gift,  and  to  the  supremacy  of 
that  blessedness  of  giving  which  could  be  reached 
only  through  death,  —  the  death  of  the  cross.  This 
joy  of  giving  it  was  that  was  set  before  Him,  for 
which  He  endured  the  cross,  despising  the  shame." 
The  sermon  to  the  class  of  1856  on  "SeK-denial " 
was  naturally  an  exposition  of  the  Christian  life. 
At  the  very  outset  of  the  discourse  there  is  a  break- 
ing forth  of  this  thought  of  wide  relations  in  a  com- 
parison of  Christianity  to  the  atmosphere.  "The 
atmosphere  evaporates  water,  distributes  it,  re- 
flects light,  bears  up  birds,  wafts  ships,  supports 
combustion,  conveys  sound,  is  the  breath  of  our 
life,  and  the  azure  of  our  heavens.  So  Christian- 
ity, while  it  magnifies  the  law,  and  enthrones  mercy, 
and  reconciles   us   to  God,  and   makes  known   to 


198  MARK  HOPKINS. 

principalities  and  powers  in  the  heavenly  places 
his  manifold  wisdom,  is  also  the  regulating  and 
renovating  spirit  in  the  relations  of  time.  It  alone 
inspires  and  guides  progress;  for  the  progress  of 
man  is  movement  towards  God,  and  movement  to- 
wards God  will  insure  a  gradual  unfolding  of  all 
that  exalts  and  adorns  man.  It  excludes  malig- 
nity, subdues  selfishness,  regulates  the  passions, 
subordinates  the  appetites,  quickens  the  intellect, 
exalts  the  affections.  It  promotes  industry,  hon- 
esty, truth,  purity,  kindness.  It  humbles  the 
proud,  exalts  the  lowly,  upholds  law,  favors  liberty, 
is  essential  to  it,  and  would  imite  men  in  one  great 
brotherhood.  It  is  the  breath  of  life  to  our  social 
and  civil  well-being  here,  and  spreads  the  azure  of 
the  heaven  into  whose  unfathomable  depths  the  eye 
of  faith  loves  to  look.  All  this  it  does,  while  yet 
its  great  object  is  in  the  future.  The  river  passes 
on,  but  the  trees  upon  its  banks  are  green  and 
bear  fruit." 

It  was  in  the  addresses  to  the  classes,  conclud- 
ing these  sermons,  that  Dr.  Hopkins  often  ex- 
pressed plainly  the  deeper  feelings  of  his  nafure. 
There  was  something  in  his  mind  that  always 
recognized  and  emphasized  the  dramatic  signifi- 
cance of  events  and  crises.  The  sending  forth  of 
a  body  of  young  men  whose  maturer  thought  he 
had  for  a  year  so  closely  watched  and  guided  was 
always  to  him  something  more  than  the  simple  ter- 
mination of  a  college  course.  It  connected  itself 
in  his  mind,  for  each  graduating  student,  with  all 


THE  FREACHEB.  199 

the  future,  and  the  final  words  were  always  fitly- 
chosen.  Sometimes  a  peculiar  relation  of  the  year 
gave  an  added  interest  and  depth  to  his  expres- 
sion, as,  for  instance,  in  1862,  when  his  second  son 
was  graduated,  who  looked  forward  with  some 
others  to  immediate  service  in  the  war  for  the 
Union. 

"Are  any  of  you,  as  some  are,  in  seeking  to  sus- 
tain those  'powers  that  be,'  and  that  'are  ordained 
of  God,'  to  encounter  the  temptations  of  a  camp, 
the  exposure  of  a  southern  climate,  the  hazards  of 
the  battlefield  ?  How  precious  will  be  the  presence 
and  succor  of  One  that  sticketh  closer  than  a 
brother!  Are  you  to  bear  the  responsibilities  of 
life  and  wage  its  battles  till  old  age?  Little  do  you 
know  of  your  weakness  and  of  the  besetments  and 
fierce  struggles  of  the  long  way,  if  a  divine  Helper 
would  not  be  precious  to  you.  He  will  be  precious 
to  3^ou  in  the  final  hour.  When  you  shall  walk 
through  the  valley  of  the  shadow  of  death,  bis  rod 
and  his  staff,  they  shall  comfort  you.  And  when 
the  present  order  shall  come  to  an  end,  and  that 
building  of  God  whose  stones  are  now  preparing 
shall  go  up  without  the  sound  of  the  axe  or  the 
hammer,  till  'the  headstone  thereof  shall  be 
brought  forth  with  shoutings, '  you  shall  be  there, 
and  cry,  'Grace,  grace  unto  it.'  " 

So  there  is  a  touching  allusion  to  the  death  of  a 
nephew,  the  son  of  his  brother,  who  had  been  for 
three  years  a  member  of  the  class  of  1864,  and  had 
fallen   a  victim  to  the  rebellion   at  Ashland  only 


200  MAIiK  HOPKINS. 

a  few  months  previously,  in  the  address  to  this 
class. 

A  peculiar  beauty  and  sweetness  is  in  the  fare- 
well words  to  the  class  of  1872,  the  last  of  thirty- 
six  classes  graduated  under  Dr.  Hopkins's  presi- 
dency. A  quotation  has  already  been  given  from 
that  impressive  sermon,  and  the  farewell  address 
follows  immediately  after  the  words  of  that  quota- 
tion :  — 

"And  now,  my  beloved  friends,  the  time  has 
come  when,  in  some  respects,  that  which  has  been 
is  to  be  no  longer.  Not  only  is  the  peculiar  and 
most  pleasant  relation  which  has  existed  between 
us  the  past  year  to  cease,  but  also  the  relation 
which  I  have  so  long  held  to  this  college.  During 
the  thirty-six  years  of  that  relation  I  have  failed 
but  twice,  once  from  sickness  and  once  from  ab- 
sence, to  address  each  successive  class  as  I  now 
address  you.  Hereafter  other  classes  will  come, 
another  voice  will  address  them,  the  circular  move- 
ment will  go  on,  but  you  and  I  pass  into  the  on- 
ward movement,  you  to  your  work,  and  I  to  what 
remains  to  me  of  mine.  Behind  us  is  that  past, 
fixed  forever,  which  God  will  require.  Before 
us  —  what?  Definitely  I  know  not  ;  but  I  do 
know  that  there  is  One  above  us  whom  we  may 
safely  trust.  I  do  know  that  'God  is  love.' 
Whatever  else  I  hold  on  to,  or  give  up,  I  will  hold 
on  to  that.  That  I  will  not  give  up.  To  the  God 
of  love,  therefore,  who  has  hitherto  been  so  much 
better  to  me  than  mv  fears,  do  I  commit  mvself : 


THE  PREACHER.  201 

to  the  God  of  love  do  I  commend  you,  every  one 
of  you,  praying  that  in  all  your  pilgrimage  He 
will  bless  you  and  keep  you ;  that  '  He  will  make 
his  face  shine  upon  you,  and  be  gracious  unto 
you;  that  He  will  lift  up  his  countenance  upon 
you,  and  give  you  peace.'  " 


THE  PRESIDENT  OF  THE  AMERICAN 

BOARD  OF  COMMISSIONERS   FOR 

FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 


Yet  there  is  one  I  more  affect 
Than  Jesuit,  Hermit,  Monk,  or  Friar ; 
'T  is  an  old  man  of  sweet  aspect, 
I  love  him  more,  I  more  desire. 

I  know  him  hy  his  head  of  snow, 
His  ready  smile,  his  keen  full  eye, 
His  words  which  kindle  as  they  flow, 
Save  he  he  rapt  in  ecstasy." 

CARDiNAii  Newman,  St.  Philip  in  Himself. 


CHAPTER  IX. 

THE     PRESIDENT     OF    THE    AMERICAN     BOARD      OF 
COMMISSIONERS    FOR    FOREIGN    MISSIONS. 

Dr.  Hopkins  became  president  of  the  "Amer- 
ican Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign  Mis- 
sions "  in  1857,  at  the  meeting  in  Providence. 
There  was  an  exceeding  fitness  in  his  election  to 
this  position.  With  great  dignity  of  person  he 
combined  an  effective  readiness  in  extemporaneous 
speaking  and  a  quickness  in  discerning  the  latent 
tendencies  of  any  movement.  His  long  experience 
as  a  teacher  qualified  him  to  control  discussion  to 
its  proper  limits,  and  his  sovereign  common  sense 
enabled  him  so  to  guide  the  long  and  often  excit- 
ing, but  often  wearisome  sessions  as  to  reach  the 
proper  result.  Had  the  meetings  been  purely  busi- 
ness meetings,  his  success  might  have  been  less 
uniform  and  brilliant.  No  better  presiding  offi- 
cer could  have  been  found  for  that  annual  series  of 
meetings,  in  which  instruction,  devotion,  and  busi- 
ness are  blended.  As  has  already  been  stated, 
the  universal  relations  of  Christianity  were  the  in- 
spiring and  directing  thought  of  his  mind.  In  the 
missionary  movement,  in  the  contemplation  and  ful- 
fillment of  that  last  command  to  "  go  into  all  the 


206  MAEK  HOPKINS. 

world  and  preach  the  gospel  to  every  creature,"  the 
forces  of  his  large  nature  found  a  congenial  field 
for  activity  and  expression.  He  might  not  have 
made  a  successful  missionary  in  the  narrow  and 
limited  sense  in  which  men  commonly  use  that 
word.  But  had  he  himself  gone  in  the  service  of  his 
Master  to  a  foreign  land,  the  direction  of  educa- 
tional forces,  the  management  of  far-reaching  and 
complicated  agencies,  would  surely  have  come  into 
his  hands,  and  he  would  have  been  widely  known  as 
the  leader  and  director  of  movements  that  might 
have  captured  the  intellectual  men  of  a  refined  civ- 
ilization. For  small  details  of  business  he  was  too 
great,  but  the  wider  and  far  rarer  statesmanship 
which  lays  down  the  lines  along  which  the  men 
who  attend  to  details  must  work  was  his  in  abun- 
dance. The  service  which  he  rendered  to  the  cause 
of  missions  in  his  capacity  of  presiding  officer  was 
great,  and  for  that  service  the  cause  of  missions 
and  the  Congregational  churches  of  our  country 
have  abundant  reason  for  thankfulness. 

Much  of  the  time  at  these  meetings  is  given  to 
reports  which  do  not  directly  arouse  enthusiasm. 
The  meetings  generally  cover  a  period  of  three 
days,  and  are  attended  by  large  throngs  of  people. 
Many  of  these  come  from  points  quite  distant  from 
the  city  where  the  meeting  is  held,  and  as  the  meet- 
ings draw  to  a  close,  fatigue  resulting  from  the  long 
journey  and  the  constant  attention  is  strongly  felt. 
From  the  day  of  his  election  as  president  in  1857 
until  his  death  in  1887  Dr.  Hopkins  missed  but  three 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  207 

of  these  meetings.  On  two  occasions  he  was  in 
Europe,  in  1861  and  1881,  and  he  was  detained  at 
home  by  ilhiess  in  1859.  As  year  by  year  his  locks 
thinned  and  whitened,  he  went  on  his  pilgrimage, 
often  several  hundred  miles,  from  his  mountain 
home,  and  endured  not  simply  the  ordinary  fatigue 
of  the  visitor,  but,  in  addition,  the  fatigue  coming 
from  the  responsibility  for  the  guidance  of  the  pub- 
lic assemblies.  The  meetings  begin  on  Tuesday 
and  close  Friday  noon.  On  Thursday  evening,  at 
least  during  the  later  years  of  his  presidency,  an 
address  was  expected  from  him.  There  was  some- 
thing surprising,  as  the  years  slipped  away,  in  the 
ease  and  strength  with  which  he  met  this  duty. 
The  great  audience,  which  had  been  wearied  by  the 
days  of  report  and  discussion,  was  reanimated  and 
inspired  by  his  words.  It  was  on  these  occasions 
that  his  clear  views  of  the  universal  relations  of 
Christ  and  his  salvation,  of  the  duties  that  this 
salvation  imposed  on  every  man  who  had  accepted 
it,  of  the  claims  that  all  the  world  had  on  the  fol- 
lower of  Christ,  and  of  the  grandeur  of  following 
such  a  Master  into  .missionary  work  for  the  most 
degraded,  found  their  noblest  utterance.  It  seemed 
that  with  each  succeeding  year  the  power  of  impart- 
ing to  others  his  wide  vision  and  of  quickening 
missionary  enthusiasm  was  increased. 

Often  he  was  expected  on  Friday  morning  also 
to  extend  the  thanks  of  the  board  for  the  friendly 
hospitalities  of  the  city.  His  addresses  were  uni- 
formly fitting,  and  often  peculiarly  happy. 


208  MARK  HOPKINS. 

It  would  be  impossible  for  any  report  to  do  these 
discourses  full  justice.  As  they  were  generally  ex- 
temporaneous, they  gained  much  of  their  effective- 
ness from  the  atmosphere  of  the  occasion  and  the 
color  of  the  surroundings,  which  Dr.  Hopkins 
never  failed  to  comprehend  fully  and  to  embody 
adequately  in  his  words. 

Although  these  fugitive  elements  do  not  appeal 
to  the  reader  as  to  the  hearer,  there  is  enough  that 
is  characteristic  of  the  speaker  in  the  reports  of 
these  addresses  which  have  been  preserved  to  in- 
terest the  reader.  This  is  true  even  for  those  who 
did  not  know  Dr.  Hopkins.  For  those  who  did 
know  him,  and  had  heard  him  speak  extemporane- 
ously, which  was  his  usual  habit  of  discourse  except 
on  "the  rarest  occasions,  these  reports  will  have  a 
peculiar  power  in  bringing  up  a  distinct  remem- 
brance of  his  persuasive  and  inspiring  speech. 
One  might  almost  say  that  he  never  was  himself 
except  when  making  an  extemporaneous  address 
before  an  intelligent  audience. 

A  few  extracts  may  exhibit  in  a  clear  way  his 
deep  interest  in  missions,  and  his  admirable  ser- 
vice as  presiding  officer  at  the  meetings  in  gath- 
ering up  into  one  utterance  the  various  lines  of 
thought  and  emotion  that  had  been  developed,  and 
giving  to  the  intellectual  men  and  women  who  had 
attended  the  meeting  a  final  and  abiding  impression 
of  the  nobility  of  missionary  service,  and  of  their 
direct  responsibilities  for  the  work. 

At  the  meeting  in  Pittsfield  in  1866,  the  follow- 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  209 

ing  words  were  used  with  respect  to  the  desired 
unity  of  Christians :  — 

"Let  the  whole  race  fix  their  eyes  upon  the 
North  Star  and  march  onwards  with  steady  gaze 
upon  tliat  himinary,  and  this  march  will  bring 
them  together  in  one  vast  multitude,  over  the  cen- 
tre of  which  the  object  of  their  common  regard 
burns  in  the  firmament.  They  are  brought  together 
not  because  they  planned  to  meet,  but  because  they 
had  a  common  object  in  view,  and  let  the  Christians 
of  every  name  keep  their  eyes  fixed  upon  Jesus 
Christ,  and  the  divisions  of  Christendom  will  be 
known  no  more." 

The  board  met  in  Pittsburgh  in  1869,  and  from 
Dr.  Hopkins's  address  at  that  m3etiQg  the  follow- 
ing extract  is  taken.  It  presents  tha  contrast  be- 
tween the  work  of  God  and  that  of  man  in  his  own 
striking  manner,  and  with  simple  loyalty  to  the 
Master  presses  home  the  duty  of  individual  Chris- 
tians :  — 

"There  is  a  general  pervading  persistency  in- 
creasing the  cry  of  progress,  which  would  ahnost 
lead  one  to  believe  that  the  old  relations  between 
Christianity  and  the  world  were  changed.  Prog- 
ress !  Yes,  there  has  been  progress,  and  great 
progress;  but  progress  in  what?  In  Christianity? 
No ;  the  foundation  of  Christianity  is  the  same  that 
it  was  before  that  last  supper  which  we  have  cele- 
brated here  this  afternoon.  Another  foundation 
can  no  man  lay.  In  the  requirements  of  Chris- 
tianity?    No;  the  strait  gate  is  just  as  strait,  and 


210  MARE  HOPKINS, 

the  narrow  way  is  just  as  narrow,  as  it  was  of  old. 
No  cry  of  God's  Church  can  v/iden  the  entrance  or 
the  way  one  hair's  breadth.  Christianity  vindicates 
itself  as  from  God  by  placing  itself  alongside  of  its 
works.  There  is  no  progress  in  the  works  of  God. 
The  sun  shines  no  more  brightly  to-day  than  it  did 
six  thousand  years  ago;  the  seasons  come  and  go 
no  more  perfectly  and  exactly;  the  body  of  man 
is  nourished  and  strengthened  in  no  other  way  than 
of  old ;  his  heart  beats  and  his  blood  circulates  and 
his  food  digests  as  it  did  when  Adam  was  in  Eden ; 
there  has  been  no  progress.  No;  in  the  structure 
of  God's  works,  in  their  mighty  area,  in  their  cease- 
less uniformity,  there  has  been  no  improvement. 
When  the  work  of  the  Lord  ceased  on  the  sixth 
day  it  was  said,  'Thus  the  heavens  and  the  earth 
were  finished,  and  all  the  hosts  of  them,'  and  there 
has  been  no  improvement  in  anything  that  God 
has  made  from  that  time  to  this.  'What  He  doeth 
is  forever,'  and  so,  by  a  sublime  parallelism,  I  have 
no  doubt,  intended,  in  that  hour  of  darkness  and 
of  agony,  when  our  Saviour  was  about  to  expire 
on  the  cross.  He  said,  'It  is  finished.'  Yes,  'It  is 
finished. '  All  that  was  necessary  for  human  sal- 
vation was  completed,  and  that  great  work  of  God 
has  stood,  and  stands,  and  will  stand,  like  the  sun 
in  the  heavens,  and  Christ  lifted  up  on  the  cross 
shall  draw  all  humanity  unto  Him,  and  there  is 
no  progress  in  that  because  nothing  can  transcend 
it.  The  relations  of  Christianity  to  the  civil  law 
are   changed,    and  everywhere   now  in   the   world 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  211 

evangelical  religion  turns  the  world  upside  down 
and  is  everywhere  spoken  against.  Thus  it  is  ob- 
serv^ed  everywhere ;  thus  it  is  that  evangelical  reli- 
gion is  persecuted  by  superstition  and  paganism  in 
heathen  lands.  Thus  it  is  that  Popery  everywhere 
follows  and  strikes  it;  thus  it  is  that  ritualism 
and  invention  would  undermine  it;  thus  it  is  that 
in  opposing  this  now  as  of  old  Herod  and  Pilate 
became  friends,  and  this  opposition  and  just  this 
element  our  Saviour  and  his  Apostles  in  their  day 
overcame;  this  opposition  we  have  to  meet.  The 
earth  is  not  yet  subdued  to  God,  and  the  forces 
are  arrayed  against  the  church,  and  we  have  pre- 
cisely the  work  to  do  which  they  laid  down  their 
lives  for.  Did  they  do  it?  They  did  it  by  love, 
which  was  so  great  that  it  enjoined  them  to  lay 
down  their  lives  if  it  became  necessary.  And  un- 
less we  have  in  us  a  spirit  of  love  for  Christ  and 
love  for  our  fellow-men  that  shall  induce  us  so 
far  as  is  necessary  to  do  this  same  thing,  we  shall 
accomplish  nothing.  Here  is  our  deficiency,  here 
i.^  the  thing  we  need.  We  need  to  labor  for  the 
single  end  to  make  men  like  Christ.  If  we  labor 
for  that,  it  is  impossible  we  should  have  any  wrong 
motive ;  if  we  labor  for  that,  we  shall  be  like  Christ. 
It  is  the  greatest  blessing  we  can  give  to  any  man 
to  make  him  like  Jesus  Christ,  and  if  this  pui*pose 
and  spirit  can  possess  the  churches,  the  missionary 
boards  of  the  land  will  need  no  more  money ;  if  it 
can  possess  the  young  men,  they  will  need  no  more 
missionaries.     I  do  feel  this  is  a  very  simple  point. 


212  MARK  HOPKINS. 

1  do  feel,  fathers  and  friends,  it  is  of  the  great- 
est moment  we  should  labor  for  Jesus  in  just  this 
spirit  —  labor  in  the  spirit  of  love  to  make,  man 
like  Jesus  Christ.  Thus  laboring,  if  we  could  but 
do  it,  and  if  others  would  but  work  with  us,  this 
blessed  unity  would  come  of  course ;  our  mission- 
ary stations,  working  out  from  their  centres,  would 
blend  together  as  the  light  of  the  stars  blend  to- 
gether, working  for  the  common  object,  and  in  a 
common  spirit  all  Christians  would  see  eye  to  eye. 
The  watchmen  would  see  eye  to  eye,  and  the  Lord 
would  bring  again  Zion." 

The  following  is  an  outline  of  the  address  deliv- 
ered at  Hartford  in  1876:  — 

''In  passing  out  of  the  Opera  House  the  other 
night,  I  met  a  graduate  of  Williams  College  who 
has  been  greatly  successful  in  winning  souls  to 
Christ.  The  friend  asked  me  if  I  remembered  say- 
ing that  if  they  wished  success,  they  must  remem- 
ber how  God  worked,  and  then  work  with  Him.  I 
did  not  remember  the  allusion,  but  it  occurred  to 
me  that  it  would  be  true  in  regard  to  anything,  and 
that  it  must  especially  be  true  in  regard  to  the  great 
work  in  which  this  board  is  engaged.  We  are 
then  simply  to  ask  how  it  is  that  God  works  in  con- 
nection with  this  work.  And  it  seems  to  me  the 
essential  forces  of  Christianity  through  which  He 
works  are  (l)'his  righteousness,  (2)  self-sacrific- 
ing love.  The  righteousness  of  God  is  the  justice 
that  lies  back  of  all  moral  government.  It  lies 
back  of  the  gospel  itself.     The  gospel  is  the  ex- 


TEE  AMERICAN  BOAIiD.  213 

pressioii  of  the  law.  It  makes  it  honorable.  These 
two,  righteousness  and  love,  must  work  together. 
Righteousness  quickens  the  moral  nature,  without 
which  no  religion  avails.  Love  touches  the  heart 
and  brings  men  to  God.  These  two  meeting  in  the 
cross,  perfect  righteousness  and  perfect  love,  are 
as  great  as  they  possibly  can  be.  These  two  unit- 
ing like  rays  of  light  are  the  one  force  by  which 
God  draws  men  to  Him.  Man's  deepest  need  is 
the  need  of  reconciliation  and  pardon  from  God. 
Without  this  need  satisfied,  man  has  no  peace. 
These  two  give  reconciliation.  The  religion  of 
Christ  works  in  man  righteousness  and  self-sac- 
rificing love.  Unless  these  be  produced  in  man, 
the  religion  of  Christ  is  a  failure.  So  much  right- 
eousness and  self-sacrificing  love  as  there  is  in 
this  house,  so  much  is  there  of  Christianity,  and 
no  more.  These  are  the  sources  of  Christianity. 
When  a  man  has  these,  he  is  prepared  to  work 
with  God  in  this  labor." 

The  following  address  is  one  of  the  best  reported 
among  the  papers  at  the  Missionary  Eooms.  It  is 
given  here  in  full,  as  it  is  a  good  specimen  of  his 
peculiarly  argumentative  and  convincing  style.  It 
was  delivered  at  Milwaukee  in  1878 :  — 

"We  are  here,  fathers  and  brethren,  in  the 
faith  that  the  stone  that  was  cut  out  of  the  moun- 
tain without  hands  will  become  a  great  mountain 
and  fill  the  whole  earth.  This  we  believe,  first,  on 
the  ground  of  supernatural  intervention;  and  sec- 
ond, on  that  of  natural  tendency.    Of  supernatural 


214  MABK  HOPKINS. 

intervention  we  can  know  nothing  except  by  reve- 
lation. 'The  times  and  the  seasons  the  Father  hath 
put  in  his  own  power. '  But  of  natural  tendency 
we  can  judge.  Looking  at  this  we  can  see  no 
reason  why  the  law  of  the  '  survival  of  the  fittest ' 
should  not  apply  to  Christianity  as  compared  with 
other  religions  in  the  same  way  as  to  anything  else. 
How  then  does  it  apply  to  anything  else?  It  is 
supposed  by  modern  science  to  be  a  law  that  regu- 
lates, without  supernatviral  intervention,  the  preva- 
lence and  even  the  existence  of  the  different  species 
of  plants  and  animals  on  the  earth.  But  how? 
The  survival  of  the  fittest !  Fittest  for  what  ? 
Fittest  to  survive?  Does  it  simply  mean  that 
those  will  survive  that  are  fittest  to  survive?  Or 
does  it  mean  that  those  will  survive  that  are  fittest 
for  the  ends  of  sensitive  life,  and  especially  of  man  ? 
If  it  mean  the  first,  it  maybe  a  law,  but  it  amounts 
to  nothing.  Of  course  those  will  survive  that  are, 
all  things  considered,  fittest  to  survive.  But  if  it 
mean  that  without  the  intervention  of  intelligent 
will,  those  will  survive  that  are  fittest  to  meet  the 
wants  of  man,  then  it  is  not  a  law.  The  reverse  is 
often  true.  Left  to  itself,  it  is  not  generally  true 
that  that  which  is  fittest  to  meet  the  wants  of  man 
is  fittest  to  survive. 

"When  Solomon  'went  by  the  field  of  the  sloth- 
ful, and  by  the  vineyard  of  the  man  void  of  un- 
derstanding, and  lo  !  it  was  all  grown  over  with 
thorns,  and  nettles  had  covered  the  face  thereof, ' 
that  was  according  to  the  law  of  the  survival  of  the 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  215 

fittest.  The  thorns  were  fittest  to  survive  as  com- 
paretl  with  the  vine,  and  the  strongest  nettles  as 
compared  with  other  nettles.  As  compared  with 
wheat,  thistles  —  Canada  thistles  —  are  fittest  to 
survive,  and  cockle  as  compared  with  barley.  It 
may  indeed  be  plausibly  said  that  the  things  best 
fitted  for  the  use  of  man  are  least  fitted  to  survive. 
Th3  finest  fruits  need  the  most  care.  Of  all  grains 
wheat  "is  best  fitted  for  food,  and  probably  least 
fitted  to  surviv^e.  No  one  knows  where  it  is  indi- 
genous, and,  left  to  itself,  it  would  soon  perish 
from  the  earth.  It  has  a  natural  tendency  to  sur- 
vive owing  to  its  environments,  but  that  needs  to 
be  supplemsnted  by  the  intelligence  and  the  toil  of 
man.  To  us  it  would  seem  that  that  which  is  fit- 
test for  the  use  of  man  should  be  fittest  to  survive. 
But  in  this,  Nature  seems  to  be  at  cross-purposes 
with  herself ;  and  thus  do  we  find,  wrought  into  her 
very  constitution,  and  proclaimed  by  science,  the 
elements  of  that  primeval  curse:  'In  the  sweat  of 
thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread. '  It  is  thus  that  the 
law  applies  in  nature.  And  precisely  thus  does  it 
apply  to  the  different  religions  of  the  world.  And 
applying  it  thus  we  may  affirm  of  Christianity  two 
propositions  :  — 

"First,  that,  aside  from  supernatural  interven- 
tion, it  was,  of  all  known  or  conceivable  religions, 
the  least  fitted  to  survive. 

"  Second,  that,  of  all  known  or  conceivable  re- 
ligions, it  is  fittest  to  meet  the  wants  of  men. 

"First,  then,  aside  from  supernatural  interven- 


216  MABK  HOPKINS. 

tion,  Christianity  was,  of  all  known  or  conceivable 
religions,  least  fitted  to  survive.  It  had  not  a  single 
element  that  the  world  reckons  on  for  influence. 
It  began  in  a  stable.  It  was  laid  in  a  manger. 
Place  yourselves  by  the  side  of  that.  Follow  the 
infant  in  his  flight  into  Egypt ;  in  his  return  to  a 
remote  part  of  a  conquered  province,  and  to  a  dis- 
reputable town.  See  him,  without  letters,  at  work 
as  a  carpenter.  At  the  age  of  thirty  see  him  trav- 
eling about  the  country  on  foot  as  a  teacher,  with  a 
few  peasant  followers.  After  only  three  years  see 
him  apprehended,  tried,  condemned,  as  a  malefac- 
tor by  both  Jews  and  Romans.  See  him  hanging 
on  the  cross  betw^een  two  thieves.  See  him  laid  in 
the  tomb  with  a  great  stone  over  its  mouth,  sealed 
with  the  seal  of  authority,  and  a  watch  set. 
Christianity  was  there.  It  was  in  that  tomb.  Not 
a  person  living  fully  understood  it.  The  words 
spoken  had  been  dispersed  in  the  air,  and  no  record 
of  them  had  been  left.  I  ask  you  if  imagination 
can  add  a  single  circumstance  to  heighten  the  im- 
probability that  a  world-wide  religion  would  spring 
from  such  a  source?  But  looking  at  Christianity 
thus  we  see  but  half  the  improbability  of  its  sur- 
vival. We  need  to  look  also  at  its  nature  as  a 
spiritual  and  holy  religion,  and  at  the  strength 
of  that  which  it  had  to  overcome.  As  spiritual 
and  holy  it  was  aggressive.  Its  antagonism  to  all 
forms  of  iniquity  was  uncompromising.  It  had 
therefore  to  overcome  not  only  the  aversion  of  the 
individual   to   sjiirituality  and  holiness,    but  also 


THE  AMEIilCAN   BO  iUD.  217 

to  overcome  and  displace  those  organized  and 
deeply  imbedded  systems  of  religion  and  civil 
government  which  gave  sanction  and  scope  to  that 
aversion. 

"If  then  we  mean  by  the  survival  of  the  fittest, 
that  which  is  fittest  to  survive,  it  must  be  conceded 
that  of  all  possible  religions  Christianity  was,  and 
I  may  say  even  now  is,  the  least  fitted  to  survive. 
But  while  we  say  this,  we  say  again,  that  of  all  re- 
ligions known  or  conceivable,  Christianity  is  best 
fitted  to  meet  the  wants  of  man,  and  so,  in  the 
highest  sense,  best  fitted  to  survive. 

"Between  Christianity  and  the  wants  of  man  as 
a  sinner,  we  say  that  the  correspondence  is  perfect. 
We  say  that  it  is  light  to  the  eye,  bread  to  the  hun- 
gry, cold  water  to  the  thirsty  soul.  We  say  that 
it  is  redemption,  deliverance,  pardon,  peace,  eter- 
nal life.  Coming  as  tidings  —  'good  tidings  of 
great  joy  '  —  it  can  be  received  by  all.  It  implies 
doctrine,  but  it  is  an  offer  of  help;  and  he  who 
finds  himself  struggling  in  the  horrible  pit  and  the 
miry  clay  has  but  to  reach  forth  the  hand  of  faith, 
and  he  shall  be  lifted  out  of  it,  and  he  shall  find 
his  feet  set  upon  a  rock. 

"Nor  is  it  merely  as  a  sinner  that  Christianity 
•  corresponds  with  man.  Assuming  natural  religion, 
and  the  revelation  of  the  Old  Testament,  it  meets 
perfectly  every  religious  want.  Is  man  a  creature? 
It  reveals  co  him  an  intelligent  Creator.  '  He  that 
built  all  things  is  God. '  No  atheism,  no  panthe- 
ism, no  blind  force.     As  a  creature  does  he  need 


218  MARK  HOPKINS. 

care,  sympathy,  love?  It  reveals  to  him  a  Father, 
and  says  to  him  that  the  hairs  of  his  head  are  all 
numbered.  Does  he  lind  himself,  through  inter- 
nal struggles  and  the  stepmotherhood  of  nature, 
weary  and  heavy  laden?  It  says,  'Come  unto  me, 
and  I  will  give  you  rest. '  Is  he  called  to  lay  loved 
ones  in  the  grave?  It  says  to  him,  'Thy  brother 
shall  rise  again. ' 

"It  embosoms  within  itself  the  foundation  and 
means  of  all  reforms,  individual  and  social.  Be- 
ginning with  the  individual,  not  with  organizations, 
it  j^laces  him,  whether  old  or  young,  rich  or  poor, 
educated  or  uneducated,  on  the  footing  of  his  own 
moral  responsibility  and  spiritual  independence, 
and  then  offers  him,  not  only  forgiveness,  but  the 
aid  of  the  Holy  Spirit  that  he  may  become  'a  per- 
fect man  in  Christ  Jesus. ' 

"Passing  to  society,  it  lays  the  foundation  of 
purity  in  the  Christian  family.  The  foundation  of 
peace  it  lays  in  the  fatherhood  of  God  and  the 
brotherhood  of  man.  If  peace  is  ever  to  be  univer- 
sal, it  will  not  be  from  interest  or  fear,  but  from  a 
recosrnition  of  these.  The  foundation  of  civil  order 
it  lays  in  its  requirement  of  subjection  to  lawful 
authority.  Its  guard  against  tyranny  it  places  in 
its  command  to  obey  God  rather  than  man.  Its 
provision  for  general  enlightenment,  at  once  for 
conservatism  and  progress,  for  reform  without  rev- 
olution, is  found  in  its  command  to  'prove  all 
things,  and  hold  fast  that  which  is  good. '  Chris- 
tianity fittest?     Nothing  else  is  fit.     It  is  so  fit 


THE  AMERICAN  BOAliD.  219 

that,  if  it  were  universally  and  perfectly  received, 
the  millennium  would  have  come. 

"As  the  world  now  is,  and  left  to  itself,  the 
thorns,  the  thistles,  the  cockle  of  idolatry,  and  su- 
perstition, and  fanaticism,  and  formalism,  and  the 
deadly  nightshade  of  infidelity  are  fitted  to  survive. 
But  if  the  grand  ideas  of  purity  and  peace  and 
blessedness  of  which  man  is  capable  are  to  be  real- 
ized, if  the  capabilities  that  are  in  him  as  made  in 
the  image  of  God  are  to  be  brought  out,  Christian- 
ity alone  is  fit.  It  is  fittest  to  live  by ;  it  is  fittest 
to  die  by.  Fully  received,  it  can  sustain  man  in 
death  as  nothing  else  can.  It  can  pluck  from  death 
its  sting,  and  from  the  grave  its  victory.  It  can 
take  a  man  once  a  heathen,  cast  out  by  his  kin- 
dred, and  dying  in  a  hut,  and  enable  him  to  say, 
when  asked  how  it  was  with  him,  'He  has  taken 
all  mine  and  given  me  all  his.'  And  when  asked 
to  explain,  to  say  again,  'He  has  taken  my  sin  and 
my  death,  that  is  all  that  was  mine,  and  given  me 
holiness  and  heaven.'  Like  wheat,  it  has  a  nat- 
ural tendency  to  survive ;  but  owing  to  its  environ- 
ment it  needs  the  constant  care  of  the  Great  Hus- 
bandman, and  the  prayers  and  labor  of  those  who 
work  together  with  Him. 

"Prayer  and  labor,  these  are  the  two  instrumen- 
talities for  us  to  use.  By  looking  at  the  first  prop- 
osition we  have  considered,  we  shall  see  our  help- 
lessness and  be  led  to  prayer.  By  looking  at  the 
second,  we  shall  see  the  infinite  value  of  the  religion 
and  be  led  to  effort.     Such,  fathers  and  brethren, 


220  MABK  HOPKINS. 

is  the  religion  we  seek  to  send  to  those  who  are  des- 
titute of  it.  Do  you  think  it  much  that  we  are 
doing  to  this  end?  Do  others  think  of  us  as  fanat- 
ical or  unwise?  Two  considerations  set  my  mind 
wholly  at  rest  at  this  point.  One  is  that  we  are 
acting  under  an  explicit  order,  with  an  explicit 
promise  of  aid.  'Go  ye.'  And,  'Lo  I  am  with 
you. '  The  other  is,  that  that  order  was  given  by 
One  who  knew  the  value  of  the  religion  better  than 
we  do ;  who  so  knew  it  that  He  was  willing  to  die 
that  we  might  receive  it.  'Thanks  be  to  God  for 
his  unspeakable  gift. '  '  Freely  ye  have  received, 
freely  give.'  " 

This  address  must  have  been  very  effective  with 
intellectual  men.  It  was  almost  as  if  he  were 
standing  before  one  of  his  own  classes  and  consid- 
ering the  claims  of  Christianity  to  our  consent  and 
to  universal  acceptance.  The  relation  of  the  whole 
discussion  to  the  missionary  movement  is,  however, 
most  effectively  brought  out  in  the  concluding  sen- 
tences. 

The  address  at  Lowell  in  1880  is  less  aro^umen- 
tative,  but  produced  a  deep  impression,  and  has 
touches  of  that  playfulness  which  often  added 
beauty  to  the  strength  of  his  discourse. 

"Recently,  in  this  country  and  elsewhere,  there 
has  come  up  a  set  of  people  who  call  themselves  ag- 
nostics, by  which  they  woidd  indicate  that  they  are 
religious  'know-nothings.'  I  agree  with  those  peo- 
ple up  to  a  certain  point.  There  are  many  things 
connected  with  religious  questions,  and  connected 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  221 

with  this  question  of  missions,  which  I  do  not 
know.  I  don't  know  why  we  should  be  placed 
under  a  general  system  under  which  it  conies  to 
pass  that  so  large  a  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of 
this  globe  should  be  for  nearly  two  thousand  years 
ignorant  of  the  coming  of  the  Son  of  God.  I  do 
not  know  why  we  are  under  a  general  dispensation 
in  which  it  comes  to  pass  that  so  large  a  portion  of 
those  who  know  of  his  coming  should  reject  Him. 
This  could  not  have  been  anticipated ;  but  Chris- 
tendom is  not  Christian.  I  do  not  know  why  it 
should  be  that  those  who  are  Christians  should  be 
such  poor  Christians.  How  can  they  be?  I  do 
not  know;  I  do  not  expect  to  know  in  this  world. 
I  doubt  if  I  shall  ever  know  wh}^,  in  a  universe 
created  and  governed  by  a  Being  of  perfect  wisdom 
and  goodness  and  power,  there  should  be  evil  at 
all. 

"But  there  are  some  things  which  I  do  know.  I 
am  certain  of  them.  I  know,  however  it  may  have 
come,  that  there  is  evil  both  moral  and  natural ; 
and  I  do  not  believe  that  there  is  any  agnostic  that 
does  not  know  this.  I  know  I  stand  appalled  be- 
fore the  varied  forms  and  the  vast  extent  of  this 
evil.  I  know  that  there  is  a  difference  between 
evil  and  good,  and  that  good  is  better  than  evil.  I 
know  that  knowledge  is  better  than  ignorance,  and 
truth  than  falsehood,  and  honesty  than  dishonesty, 
and  temperance  than  intemperance,  and  purity 
than  impurity,  and  kindness  than  cruelty,  and  love 
than  hatred.     I  know  that  kindness  would  have 


222  MABK  HOPKINS. 

been  a  more  suitable  return  for  what  our  beloved 
Brother  Parsons  did  in  Turke}-  than  murder.  I 
know  that  the  sacrifices  of  a  broken  heart  are  bet- 
ter than  human  sacrifices.  I  know  that  the  wor- 
ship of  God,  who  is  a  spirit,  in  spirit  and  in  truth 
is  better  than  the  worship  of  idols;  and  knowing 
this,  I  know  —  and  that  is  our  point  here  —  that 
wherever  Christianity  comes  —  real  Christianity, 
not  nominal  —  that  which  is  evil  will  be  displaced 
by  that  which  is  better ;  knowledge  will  take  the 
place  of  ignorance,  and  truth  of  falsehood,  and 
temperance  of  intemperance,  and  purity  of  impu- 
rity, and  kindness  of  cruelty,  and  love  of  hatred, 
and  peace  of  war.  The  savage  and  the  cannibal 
will  take  his  place  at  the  feet  of  Him  who  was  meek 
and  lowly  in  heart.  Charms,  superstitions,  the 
various  forms  of  witchcraft  and  idolatry  —  all  that 
brood  of  superstitions  which  rests  with  such  an  in- 
cubus, and  has  for  ages  rested  with  such  an  incu- 
bus, upon  the  race  —  would  flee  away  as  the  mists 
of  the  morning.  And  not  only  will  Christianity 
displace  that  which  is  evil,  but  it  will  displace  it  by 
that  which  is  the  very  best.  I  know  that  it  will 
displace  it  by  that  which  is  the  best  possible.  I 
know  this  because  Christ  had  a  perfect  humanity ; 
and  therefore  whoever  would  reach  all  the  possibili- 
ties of  the  nature  that  is  given,  be  it  man  or  wo- 
man, must  do  it  through  Christ's  likeness. 

"  I  hold  that  Christ  was  the  second  Adam,  and  rep- 
resented a  perfect,  a  holy  humanity.  It  is  written 
in  the  Scriptures, 'Male  and  female  created  He  them ; 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  223 

and  blessed  them,  and  called  their  name  Adam.' 
This  would  indicate  that  humanity  is  complete  only 
as  it  includes  both  man  and  woman.  It  may  be  well 
to  speak  of  the  manhood  of  Christ,  and  perhaps  to 
write  a  book  about  it ;  but  the  distinctive  qualities 
of  manhood  were  no  more  conspicuous  in  Him  than 
those  supplementary  qualities  of  womanhood  which, 
together  with  those  of  manhood,  go  to  make  up  a 
perfect  humanity.  Christ  therefore  having  a  per- 
fect humanity,  whoever  will  reach  all  the  possibil- 
ities that  belong  to  the  nature  given  to  th?vt  person 
must  do  it  through  Christlikeness ;  and  Christianity 
can  never  be  satisfied  till  each  individual  follower 
of  Christ  comes  to  be  like  Him. 

"In  providing  thus  for  the  completeness,  the 
perfection  of  the  individual,  Christianity  provides 
for  the  perfection  of  society,  because  the  problem 
of  society  is  the  problem  of  the  individual.  Chris- 
tianity knows  that,  and  therefore  begins  with  the 
individual.  Let  each  individual  be  perfect,  and 
society,  the  organization  of  society,  will  take  on 
just  those  forms  by  themselves  spontaneously  which 
are  requisite  for  the  perfection  of  the  whole.  If, 
therefore,  the  possibilities  of  this  race,  individual 
and  social,  are  ever  to  be  reached,  I  know  that  the 
second  Adam,  the  man  Christ,  must  be  the  model 
and  leader  of  the  race,  and  that  just  in  proportion 
as  He  is  thus  the  model  and  leader  of  the  race,  men 
will  reach  their  highest  possibilities. 

"And  one  point  farther.  Not  only  does  Chris- 
tianity thus  enable  individuals  and  society  to  reach 


224  MABK  HOPKINS. 

their  highest  possibilities,  but  it  gives  the  highest 
conception  possible  of  what  those  possibilities  are. 
It  gives  a  grandeur  to  the  destiny  of  man  both  in- 
dividual and  social  which  the  imagination  had  never 
conceived  and  never  could  have  conceived.  In 
this  respect  it  is  analogous  to  nature,  and  stands 
over  against  nature  precisely  as  nature  does  over 
against  the  unaided  thought  of  man.  Not  farther 
does  the  universe,  as  revealed  by  the  telescope  in 
its  grandeur,  and  by  the  microscope  in  its  minute- 
ness and  finish,  transcend  whatever  has  been  con- 
ceived by  the  unaided  imagination,  than  does  the 
Christian  heaven  transcend  in  knowledge  and  pu- 
rity and  glory  anything  of  which  the  unaided  im- 
agination had  conceived.  It  gives  us,  therefore, 
the  highest  conception  possible  of  the  grandeur  and 
progress  of  our  nature,  the  very  best. 

"Now  the  difficulty  of  receiving  this  lies  in  its 
very  greatness.  What  I  You  take  a  savage,  a  can- 
nibal, a  drunkard  from  our  streets  ?  Yes,  take  one 
of  us.  What  I  take  such  creatures  as  we  are,  that 
are  going  down  into  the  dust  of  death,  and  deliver 
them  from  sin  and  from  evil,  and  raise  them  up  to 
a  dignity  and  purity  and  glory  like  this?  Yes,  just 
that.  No  matter  what  the  incrustations  may  be 
upon  the  diamond ;  there  is  power  in  the  glorious 
gospel  of  the  blessed  God  to  fashion  and  to  polish 
it,  and  to  set  it  as  a  gem  in  the  diadem  of  the 
Redeemer.  That  is  what  Christianity  does.  If 
we  look  at  man,  it  would  seem  to  be  impossible. 
It  is  too  great  to  be  believed.     But  if  we  look  at 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  225 

the  lave  of  God  in  Jesus  Christ,  it  could  not  be 
believed  if  it  were  not  so  great.  It  is  required  by 
that  love  and  by  the  grandeur  of  the  system  to  be 
so  great.  'He  that  delivered  up  for  us  his  only  be- 
gotten Son,  how  shall  He  not  with  Him  freely  give 
us  all  things?  ' 

"We  see,  then,  beloved  Christian  friends,  what 
that  result  is  towards  which  God  is  working,  and  for 
which  He  permits  us  to  work  together  with  Him. 
We  are  capable  of  producing  changes.  We  can 
cause  that  to  be  which  but  for  us  would  not  have 
been.  The  changes  which  the  children  of  this 
world  seek  to  produce  may  perhaps  all  be  included 
in  the  transfer  of  matter  from  one  place  to  another, 
the  transfer  of  property  from  man  to  man.  That 
is  all.  That  is  the  business  of  this  world.  It  is 
a  restless  sea,  always  in  motion,  always  the  same. 
But  we  seek  to  produce  moral  and  spiritual  changes, 
and  we  seek  to  do  three  things. 

"We  seek,  in  the  first  place,  to  do  for  each  in- 
dividual for  whom  we  labor  the  best  thing.  We 
seek  to  do  for  him  the  greatest  favor  which- it  is 
possible  for  one  human  being  to  do  for  another,  — 
that  is  to  say,  to  lead  him  to  know  and  foUow 
Jesus  Christ,  to  lead  him  to  be  able  to  say,  as  I 
would  humbly  say, 'I  know' — no  agnosticism  — 
'I  know  whom  I  have  believed,  and  that  He  is  able 
to  keep  that  which  I  have  committed  unto  Him 
asrainst  that  dav' 

"We  wish,  in  the  second  place,  to  found  civili- 
zations which  shall  have  so  much  of  intelligence 


226  MARK  HOPKINS. 

and  of  principle  that  they  will  not  collapse  by  their 
own  want  of  inherent  energy;  that  there  shall  be 
no  alternation  of  civilization  as  there  always  has 
been  with  barbarism ;  no  alternation  of  opj)ression 
with  anarchy.  And  we  wish  further  to  provide 
material  for  that  higher  social  state  in  which  there 
shall  be  love  and  purity  and  joy  and  peace  before 
the  throne  of  God  forever  more.  This  being  the 
work  which  we  have  before  us,  involving  the  high- 
est social  problems,  and  the  highest  problems  un- 
der the  government  of  God,  we  come  to  the  ques- 
tion which  has  been  so  much  discussed  before  this 
board,  What  sort  of  men  do  we  need?  And  here 
I  must  say  that  I  was  greatly  gratified  and  in  a 
measure  relieved  by  the  remarks  which  were  made 
by  the  representative  of  the  Prudential  Commit- 
tee, Mr.  Eopes,  in  regard  to  that  subject.  I  did 
feel  that  we  were  coming  to  be  one-sided  about  it. 
The  call  was  for  talent,  for  the  first  order  of  tal- 
ent, and  I  would  not  object  to  that,  perhaps,  in  a 
certain  sense ;  but  when  Christ  prayed  for  his  king- 
dom and  for  work  in  it.  He  prayed  for  laborers. 
He  did  not  pray  simply  for  reapers,  but  He  prayed 
for  laborers,  for  all  the  kind  of  labor  that  is 
needed ;  and  the  kind  of  labor  that  is  needed  in  the 
harvest  field  is  of  great  variety.  I  remember  the 
account  of  a  harvest  field  in  old  time,  and  there  were 
reapers  there,  and  then,  following  them,  there 
were  the  gleaners;  and  there  was  one  gleaner 
named  Ruth,  who  followed  the  men,  and  they  were 
directed  to  let  some  handfuls  fall   on  purpose,  so 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  227 

tnat  she  might  gather  them,  and  not  to  reproach  her. 
And  now  Kiith  has  been  reproduced  in  these  days 
in  the  Woman's  Board.  The  Ruths  follow  the  men, 
and  they  glean  the  field ;  and  I  suj^jpose,  from  the 
amount  they  gather  —  there  was  great  surprise  ex- 
pressed at  the  amount  Ruth  gathered  —  that  the 
men  sometimes  let  handfuls  drop  with  purpose, 
that  they  may  pick  them  up. 

"Now  this  is  a  kind  of  labor  that  we  need,  and 
we  are  feeling  the  need  of  it  more  and  more.  And 
then  we  need  other  kinds  of  labor.  I  remember 
having  heard  (for  it  was  not  in  my  day)  that  Sam- 
uel J.  Mills,  whom  we  recognize  as  having  been 
more  efficient  in  connection  with  the  origination  of 
this  missionary  enterprise  than  any  other  person, 
was  not  a  distinguished  scholar,  but  rather  the  re- 
verse. Yet  he  had  his  own  talent ;  he  had  the  tal- 
ent which  was  needed  for  stimulation  and  organiza- 
tion ;  he  had  consecration.  He  could  not  speak  in 
public,  as  I  understand  it,  but  he  went  to  these 
distinguished  people,  these  men  who  need  sometimes 
somebody  to  direct  them,  to  tell  them  how  to  shoot. 
He  went  to  Dr.  Griffin,  and  I  know  that  Dr. 
Griffin  said  (and  he  was  one  of  the  great  leading 
agents  in  that  matter)  that  whatever  he  had  done 
he  had  done  at  the  suggestion  of  Samuel  J.  Mills. 
And  a  great  many  cases  of  this  sort  occurred. 
There  is  talent  of  all  sorts  needed ;  and  I  agree  that 
there  are  certain  kinds  of  work  (and  the  highest 
kinds)  for  which  we  do  need  weak  men.  But  then 
they  are  such  kind  of   weak  men  as  the  Apostle 


228  MARK  HOPKINS. 

Paul  was,  who  said,  'Who  is  weak  and  I  am  not 
weak?  '  We  need  men  who  feel  their  own  weak- 
ness in  the  face  of  difficulties  which  stand  in  the 
way  of  success  in  this  great  work,  men  who  feel 
their  absolute  nothingness.  But  then  we  need  men 
who  can  also  be  so  much  in  sympathy  with  God  as 
to  say,  'When  I  am  weak,  then  am  I  strong,'  — 
men  who  are  weak  in  themselves,  but  strong  to  take 
hold  of  the  strength  of  God;  and  such  men  we 
need  because  the  work  which  our  missionaries  do 
is  an  apostolic  work.  That  is  to  say,  the  first  part 
is  precisely  what  the  apostles  did. 

"That  is  the  theory  of  our  missions.  It  is  to  go 
and  plant  churches,  and  to  give  them  that  organ- 
ization which  under  the  circumstances  is  best  for 
them,  and  then  pass  on.  Now  that  is  apostolic 
work,  and  for  it  we  need  the  aggressive  power  of 
Paul  and  the  firmness  of  Peter  and  the  love  of 
John.  We  do  need  the  first  talent  of  our  colleges 
and  of  our  theological  seminaries,  and  I  call  for  it 
here  to-night  —  the  first  talent  to  stand  in  the  front 
and  to  org-anize.  Who  is  there  that  will  hear  this 
call?  Who  is  there  that  will  now  in  this  formative 
time  identify  himself  with  this  grandest  work  of 
the  ages?  " 

At  Portland,  in  1882,  the  distinction  between 
love  and  duty  was  admirably  made  as  follows :  — 

"From  the  commencement  of  this  meeting  there 
has  been  evidently  a  drift  in  one  direction,  —  an 
unmistakable  drift.  It  appeared  in  the  reports 
read    by   the    secretaries    Tuesday    afternoon;    it 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  229 

flamed  forth  in  the  sermon;  it  constituted  the 
substance  of  the  special  papers  read  by  the  secre- 
taries ;  it  entered  into  the  discussions  that  followed ; 
it  went  forth  to  its  culmination  in  the  devotional 
exercises  this  morning,  when  by  that  inspired  and 
inspiring  movement  Mr.  Dodge  offered  to  double 
his  already  large  subscription,  and  that  offer  was 
followed  by  so  many  who  rose  successively,  and  by 
so  many  who  rose  simultaneously  to  offer  the  same 
thing.  That  drift  evidently  is  toward  a  decided 
enlargement  of  our  efforts  in  all  directions.  This 
has  been  the  tendency  of  the  movement  of  the 
meeting  up  to  this  point,  clearly,  unmistakably. 

"But  I  have  not  seemed  to  see  so  distinctly  ex- 
pressed, in  the  speeches  which  have  been  made,  the 
motive  which  is  to  sustain  us  in  going:  forward  in 
this  movement.  In  the  sermon  it  seemed  to  be  the 
presence  and  power  of  the  Holy  Spirit ;  but  then 
that  was  for  a  special  purpose  with  reference  to 
individuals:  'Separate  me  Saul  and  Barnabas.' 
What  was  to  be  the  motive  which  was  to  sustain 
them  during  the  long  years  of  their  labor,  and 
persecutions,  and  when  the  hour  should  come,  as 
come  they  knew  it  must,  —  when  they,  too,  should 
follow  the  Master  to  crucifixion?  I  have  heard 
three  words :  one  was  duty,  that  is  a  good  word ; 
another  was  enthusiasm,  —  missionary  enthusiasm, 
and  that  is  a  good  word;  another  was  love,  — love 
of  the  Saviour,  and  I  like  that  better. 

"Some  years  since  there  was  a  woman  who  had 
gone  out  as  a  missionary  to  India  in  connection  with 


230  i¥.17?ir  HOPKINS. 

the  American  Board,  who  brought  her  chiklren  to 
•the  coast  that  she  might  send  them  to  this  countr}^ 
She  put  them  into  the  boat  that  was  to  carry  them 
out  to  the  steamer  that  lay  in  the  offing,  and 
watched  them  until  they  embarked;  then  she 
turned  her  face  away,  and  with  tears  streaming 
down  her  cheeks  she  said,  'I  do  this  for  thee, 
Jesus. '  Here  was  a  love  by  this  woman  of  a  Being 
whom  she  had  never  seen  that  was  paramount  to 
her  natural  affection  for  her  children,  that  was  the 
principle  and  the  spring  of  her  missionary  labor. 
This  personal  love  of  the  Saviour  was  long  since 
sanctioned  by  Him  as  the  motive,  not  only  for 
missionary,  but  also  for  apostolic  labor.  In  the 
threefold  inquiry  which  our  Saviour  made  of  the 
Apostle  Peter  after  his  resurrection,  the  one  thing 
sought  for  as  a  motive  for  the  apostolic  labors, 
labors  that  were  to  end  in  crucifixion,  was  the  ^er- 
sonal  love  of  himself.  'Simon,  son  of  Jonas,  lov- 
est  thou  me?  '  And  the  one  object  proposed  in  the 
threefold  injunction  that  followed  that  inquiry  was 
the  upbuilding  of  Christian  character:  'Feed  my 
sheep,'  Teed  my  lambs.'  From  this  motive  and 
for  this  object  the  apostle  labored  during  his  whole 
life.  This  we  know  because  we  hear  him  saying 
in  his  old  age,  'The  elders  which  are  among  you  I 
exhort, ' —  evidently  having  reference  to  this  conver- 
sation, — '  which  am  also  an  elder :  feed  the  flock 
of  God  which  is  among  you,  taking  the  oversight 
thereof,  not  by  constraint,  but  willingly;  not  for 
filthy  lucre,  but  of  a  ready  mind,' — that  is  from 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  231 

love.  As  seen  in  the  woman  to  whom  I  have  re- 
ferred, this  love  had  in  it  no  touch  of  earthly  pas- 
sion, it  was  wholly  moral  and  spiritual;  it  was 
the  love  of  One  whom  she  had  never  seen;  it 
was  the  love  of  One  whose  character  was  perfect; 
it  was  the  love  of  One  who  had  loved  her  and 
given  himself  for  her;  it  was  the  love  of  a  divine 
Saviour.  Here,  then,  was  the  highest  ix)ssible  prin- 
ciple of  action ;  love  purged  of  all  selfishness  and 
mingled  with  complacency  and  gratitude. 

"But  then,  when  you  come  to  this  point,  what 
of  duty?    I  said  that  this  love  was  the  highest  pos- 
sible principle  of  action  —what  of  duty?     There 
are  those  who  say  that  duty  is  higher.     Now  let  us 
look   for  a  moment  at  the  relations  of  these  two  to 
each  other.     In  order  to  do  that  I  will  take  as  an 
illustration  the  man  spoken  of  by  Dr.   Goodwin  in 
his  sermon  who,  he  said,  had  invested  $125,000  in 
pine  lands.     If  he  had  asked  him  for  a  contribu- 
tion to  the  American  Board,  the  man  would  not 
have  felt  pleasantly  about  it;  he  would  have  been 
reluctant  to  give  it.    I  did  not  understand  that  Dr. 
Goodwin  applied  to  the  man,  but  suppose  now  he 
had  applied,  and  had  told  this  man  that  it  was  his 
duty  to  give  something  for  the  conversion  of  the 
heathen,  and  the  man  had  said  that  he  could  not 
deny  the  request,  and  had  given  him  one  hundred 
dollars,  glad  to  get  rid  of  him  so.     Would  it  have 
been  the  duty  of  that  man  to  give  that  one  hun- 
dred dollars?     I  shall  not  discuss  that  question. 
Now  if  the  man  had  gone  on  making  money,  and 


232  MAIiK  HOPKINS. 

the  year  had  come  around,  and  Dr.  Goodwin  or 
some  other  person  had  gone  to  him  again,  and  he 
had  seen  him  coming,  knowing  what  he  wanted, 
he  would  have  said,  '  There  comes  that  duty  again ; 
I  don't  like  the  looks  of  it;  sorry  for  it,  but  I 
suppose  I  must  do  something,'  and  he  gives  per- 
haps two  hundred  dollars.  Now  was  it  the  duty 
of  this  man  to  ask  him  in  that  way?  I  shall  not 
discuss  that  question.  But  suppose  he  had  gone  to 
this  man  and  told  him  that  it  was  his  duty,  not  to 
give  something  to  the  heathen,  but  to  give  himself 
to  Christ ;  that  it  was  his  duty  to  love  God  w  ith 
all  his  heart  and  his  neighbor  as  himself ;  and  sup- 
pose the  man  had  asked  why  he  should  do  this,  and 
he  had  been  pointed  to  the  cross  of  Christ,  and  had 
seen  'One  hanging  on  the  tree,'  and  had  realized 
that  He  died  for  him,  and  had  given  himself  fully 
and  heartily  to  Him  as  the  Saviour  of  sinners,  —  all 
that  he  was  and  all  that  he  had,  —  then,  if  Dr. 
Goodwin  had  gone  to  him  and  asked  him  for  a  con- 
tribution to  the  American  Board,  what  would  he 
have  said?  Why,  perhaps  he  would  have  said,  'I 
will  do  as  the  sainted  champion  did  in  the  earlier 
history  of  this  board,  who  gave  not  only  his  for- 
tune but  himself,  and  who  said,  "Tell  me  where 
the  darkest  place  in  this  world  is,  and  send  me 
there,"  and  he  went  and  laid  his  bones  do^vn  on 
the  western  coast  of  Africa.'  Perhaps  he  would 
have  said  that;  but  he  might  have  said,  'No,  I 
tAW  give  you  81,000,  or  85,000,  or  810,000;  '  and 
now  there  would  come  a  voice  to  him,  'Take  care, 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  233 

what  are  you  doing?  Haven't  you  a  family? 
Don't  you  know  that  if  a  man  does  n't  provide  for 
his  own,  he  is  worse  than  an  infidel?  '  'Yes,'  the 
man  says,  'I  have  a  family,  but  then  I  think  I 
have  enough  for  them.'  'Yes,'  but  this  voice  says, 
'don't  you  know  that  presently  Brother  Clark  is 
coming  along,  and  the  home  missions  will  want 
something?  '  And  he  says,  'Let  him  come,  I  shall 
be  glad  to  see  him.'  And  so  the  repetition  comes 
of  the  different  claims  that  will  be  made  to  him, 
and  now  the  man  looks  up  and  says,  'Who  are  you 
that  are  saying  this  ? '  And  the  voice  comes  and 
says,  'I  am  duty,  duty  restraining  you  now.  Per- 
haps you  have  been  hasty,  perhaps  you  have  heard 
Dr.  Goodwin's  sermon,  and  are  a  little  over-ex- 
cited, and  it  may  not  be  exactly  prudent  for  you  to 
give  so  much.'  And  the  man  says,  'Are  you  duty? 
I  did  not  know  you,  you  look  so  much  better  than 
you  did.'  And  now  duty  comes  to  regulate  the 
love  of  the  man,  and  to  become  the  law  of  his  love ; 
and  if  I  understand  it,  that  love  is  the  principle  of 
his  action,  and  the  duty  is  the  regulating  law  of  his 
action.  The  question  is  not,  how  little  he  shall 
give,  but  how  much  duty  will  permit  him  to  give. 
And  so,  looking  over  the  whole  ground  under  the 
control  and  direction  of  duty,  love  and  duty  look 
into  each  other's  eyes,  and  they  lock  arms  and 
move  on  together.  Now  when  this  man  was  ad- 
dressed in  the  first  place,  when  you  went  to  him  in 
the  first  place,  and  he  gave  you  one  hundred  dol- 
lars, what  did  you  do?     You  just  took  a  piece  of 


234  MARK  HOPKINS. 

steel,  and  you  struck  a  flint  rock,  and  you  brought 
out  one  bright  spark,  and  then  the  rock  was  just  as 
hard  and  cold  as  it  was  before.  Now  what  have 
you  done?  You  have  touched  the  rock  with  the 
rod  of  God,  and  there  flows  out  from  it  constantly 
a  stream  of  living  water  that  follows  the  peoj^le  of 
God  through  the  desert.  And  that,  as  I  under- 
stand it,  is  the  relation  of  these  two  words." 

At  the  age  of  eighty-three,  at  the  seventy -fifth 
anniversary  of  the  founding  of  the  board  in  Bos- 
ton, in  1885,  Dr.  Hopkins  made  the  address  from 
which  also  an  extract  is  given :  — 

"In  addressing  you,  fathers  and  brethren,  on 
this  seventy  -  fifth  anniversary  of  the  American 
Board,  I  desire,  first  of  all,  to  give  thanks  to  God 
that  I  am  permitted  to  be  with  you.  I  am  older 
than  the  American  Board,  older  by  eight  years. 
In  office  I  am  the  oldest  corporate  member  of  the 
board.  The  board  abides  in  strength,  but  of  those 
who  constituted  it  when  I  was  elected,  in  1838, 
officers  and  members,  not  one  remains.  Well, 
then,  may  I  give  humble  and  adoring  thanks  that 
I  am  permitted  to  be  with  you.  I  wish,  also,  to 
thank  the  board  for  the  great  honor  they  have 
done  me  in  electing  me  to  my  present  office  for 
these  eight  and  twenty  successive  years,  and  for 
their  kindness  and  forbearance  in  accepting  the 
imperfect  and  inadequate  service  that  I  have  been 
able  to  render.  Being  thus  old,  having  entered 
upon  life  at  the  beginning  of  the  second  year  of 
this  marvelous  century,  I  have  seen  all  its  wonders 


THE  AMERICAN  HOARD.  235 

pass  before  me.  I  remember  when  my  lesson  in 
geography  in  the  common  school  told  me  there  were 
less  than  six  million  inhabitants  in  these  United 
States.  I  remember  the  wars  of  the  first  Napo- 
leon, and  can  feel  yet  the  throb  of  excitement 
caused  by  the  tardy  news  of  his  great  battles.  I 
remember  the  war  of  1812,  and  the  embargo,  and 
the  victory  of  New  Orleans.  I  remember  the  first 
steamboat  and  railroad  and  power-press,  the  first 
photograph  and  spectroscope,  the  first  telegraph 
and  telephone,  and  heard  the  first  whisper,  and  it 
was  but  a  whisper,  of  the  first  Atlantic  cable.  I 
remember  the  first  spinning  jenny,  the  first  mow- 
ing machine  and  sewing  machine  and  reaper.  All 
these  I  have  seen  so  extended  and  applied  as  to 
increase  the  capabilities  of  the  race  many  fold,  and 
to  make  of  the  world  that  then  was  quite  another 
world.  In  common  with  most  of  you,  I  have  wit- 
nessed the  greatest  civil  war  ever  known,  have  seen 
the  dark  cloud  of  slavery  pass  off  and  a  bow  of 
hope  brighter  than  before  span  our  political  hea- 
vens. All  this  I  have  seen,  and,  to  crown  it  all,  I 
have  seen  the  missionary  spirit  coming  as  the  breath 
of  God  upon  his  people,  and  Christians  girding 
themselves  as  never  before  for  the  conquest  of  the 
whole  world  to  Christ. 

"The  formation  of  the  American  Board  in  1810 
I  do  not  remember,  but  I  do  remember  the  dif- 
ficulty there  was  in  finding  a  place  for  its  first  mis- 
sionaries. I  remember  well  the  sailing  of  the  first 
missionaries  to  the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  the  ex- 


236  MAKE  HOPKINS. 

ultation  there  was,  when  the  news  came  that  the 
natives  had  ah-eacly  cast  their  idols  to  the  moles 
and  to  the  bats.  From  that  time  I  have  been  in 
sjonpathy  with  the  movements  of  the  board,  have 
known  something  of  its  explorations  and  methods, 
and  have  seen  the  whole  heathen  world,  originally 
closed,  opened  to  the  entrance  of  the  gospel. 
During  this  period  I  have  known  of  the  debts 
of  the  board,  its  discouragements,  its  crises,  its 
deliverances,  its  triumphs.  I  have  seen  the  old 
school  Presbyterian  brethren  part  from  it;  then 
our  Dutch  brethren;  then  our  new  school  Pres- 
byterian brethren,  taking  with  them  altogether 
churches  much  more  numerous  and  wealthy  than 
our  own,  and  yet  I  have  seen  the  old  board  hold 
on  its  way  with  no  essential  diminution  of  contri- 
butions or  of  efficiency  till  now,  in  its  seventy -fifth 
year,  and  out  of  debt,  it  has  expended  more  than 
twenty  millions  of  dollars  in  seeking  to  spread  the 
gospel,  and  its  missions  belt  the  globe. 

"It  is  nothing  to  boast  of  that  this  vast  sum  has 
been  expended  without  loss,  and  up  to  the  pres- 
ent time  with  no  suspicion  of  dishonesty.  But  in 
times  like  these  it  may  be  well  to  emphasize  the 
fact,  and  to  ask  infidelity,  and  agnosticism,  and  all 
kindred  isms,  when  they  propose  to  show  an  equal 
sum,  freely  given,  and  intrusted  to  infidels  without 
security,  to  be  spent  for  benevolent,  or,  if  they  pre- 
fer the  term,  for  altruistic  purposes." 

This  was  the  last  meeting  but  one  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board  that  Dr.  Hopkins  was  permitted  to  at- 


THE  AMERICAN  BOARD.  237 

tend.  He  appeared  still  vigorous  both  in  mind  and 
in  body,  and  the  inspiring  retrospect  given  in  the 
Boston  address  and  the  fervid  glow  of  his  eloquent 
faith  in  the  future  progress  of  Christ's  kingdom 
gave  hope  of  years  of  useful  service  to  the  cause  of 
missions.  The  following  year,  1886,  at  the  age  of 
eighty-four,  he  traveled  to  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  for 
the  discharge  of  his  duties  as  presiding  officer. 
He  probably  went  with  less  joyous  energy,  with 
graver  resolution,  with  more  solemn  thought,  than 
ever  before.  It  was  not  so  much  because  he  dis- 
cerned that  his  long  period  of  service  was  drawing 
to  a  close,  as  it  was  the  knowledge  that  troublous 
times  had  come  that  sobered  the  joy  of  his  annual 
pilgrimage.  He  had  a  perfect  understanding  of 
the  conditions.  He  knew  that  the  agitation  which 
had  arisen  in  regard  to  the  acceptance  or  rejection 
of  candidates  for  missionary  labor,  though  tem- 
porary in  its  peculiar  occasion,  might  arise  again 
and  again  under  other  circumstances.  He  wished 
a  policy  to  be  adopted  that  would  be  no  temporary 
expedient,  but  one  that  should  rest  on  some  prin- 
ciple permanently  applicable.  With  the  states- 
manlike vision  that  never  failed  him  in  a  crisis, 
and  with  a  bold  and  heroic  fidelity  to  his  convic- 
tions, he  stood  and  pleaded  at  Des  Moines  for  the 
constitutional  in  the  Congregational  polity  and  the 
catholic  sympathies  of  an  apostolic  age.  If  we  con- 
sider how  busy  his  life  had  been  and  how  full  of 
anxieties  and  problems,  how  constant  had  been  his 
training  under  the  hand  of  the  divine  Master,  it 


238  MARE  HOPKINS. 

requires  no  stretch  of  imagination  to  conceive  that 
this  long  training  had  been  largely  for  this  last 
dramatic  appearance  of  his  ever  ripening  character 
and  powers,  for  this  and  what  lies  beyond.  Cer- 
tainly his  best  friends,  those  who  knew  him  best, 
can  only  give  thanks  for  the  simplicity  and  firm- 
ness, the  courtesy  and  candor,  of  his  words  and 
decisions  in  that  stormy  debate.  They  would  not 
wish  one  word  altered,  one  expression  changed. 
The  significance  of  his  attitude  can  be  explained 
only  by  giving  an  outline  of  the  movements  which 
led  to  that  debate. 


THE   CEISIS  IN   THE   BOARD    OF 
MISSIONS. 


"  And  last  the  master-bowman,  he 

Would  cleave  the  mark,     A  willing'  ear 
We  lent  him.      Who,  but  hung-  to  hear 

The  rapt  oration  flowing  free 

From  point  to  point,  with  power  and  grace 
And  music  in  the  bounds  of  law 
To  those  conclusions  when  we  saw 

The  God  within  him  light  his  face, 

And  seem  to  lift  the  form  and  glow 
In  azure  orbits  heavenly- wise." 

Tennyson,  In  Memoriam. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE   CRISIS   IN   THE  BOARD    OF   MISSIONS. 

The  thirty  years  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  presidency 
of  the  American  Board  were  for  the  most  part 
years  of  peaceful  and  harmonious  development  of 
missionary  operations.  That  his  influence  was  not 
paramount,  that  he  was  not  able  at  last  to  avert 
dissension  and  prevent  the  exhibition  to  a  hostile 
world  of  a  noble  missionary  society  excluding  from 
its  fields  young  men  and  women  burning  with  love 
for  the  Master,  because  of  their  hope  in  the  large- 
ness of  God's  mercy  or  their  uncertainty  as  to  his 
final  dealing  with  the  heathen,  was  owing  in  part 
to  the  constitution  of  the  society.  He  foresaw  the 
perils.  Had  he  been  a  member  of  the  committee 
deciding  on  the  applications  of  candidates  for  mis- 
sionary service  under  the  society,  as  the  president 
has  since  most  reasonably  been  made,  he  might 
have  controlled  the  divisive  tendencies,  or  at  least 
modified  certain  influences,  and  perhaps  have  de- 
vised a  method  of  retaining  the  ardent  loyalty  of 
all  shades  of  opinion  within  the  society. 

What  he  could  do  vmder  the  conditions  he  did, 
and  none  of  his  friends  can  regret  that  the  closing 
efforts  of  his  heroic  life  were  made  in  favor  of 


242  MARE  HOPKINS. 

treating  applications  for  the  home  and  foreign  work 
in  2:>reeisely  the  same  way.  His  attitude  and  ac- 
tion in  this  crisis  in  the  history  of  the  Congrega- 
tional missionary  board  were  a  fitting  termination 
to  his  career. 

The  Andover  Theological  Seminary,  founded  by 
a  coalition  of  moderate  Calvinists  and  Hopkinsians, 
has  been  for  several  years  the  centre  of  extraordi- 
nary agitations.  In  the  judgment  of  certain  friends 
of  the  seminary,  some  of  the  professors  have  not 
taught  a  theology  consistent  with  the  creed  which 
each  appointee  must  sign  in  order  to  occupy  his 
professorship.  A  number  of  new  23rofessors  were 
appointed  in  1882.  The  appointment  of  one  of 
them,  the  Rev.  Newman  Smyth,  who  had  been  se- 
lected by  the  trustees  for  the  chair  of  "Christian 
Theology,"  was  not  confirmed  bj^  the  visitors.  Un- 
der the  statutes  of  the  seminary  the  visitors  ^  must 
confirm  or  reject  any  nomination  to  a  professor- 
ship made  by  the  trustees.  The  reason  given  for 
the  rejection  is  contained  in  these  words  from  the 
record  of  the  visitors'  action:  "He  seems  to  us  a 
brilliant  and  eloquent  writer  rather  than  a  profes- 
sional theologian:  "  "of  all  men  a  teacher  of  Sj'S- 

1  The  power  of  the  visitors,  and  indeed  the  constitutionality  of 
their  original  appointment,  as  limiting  the  rights  of  the  trustees 
of  Phillips  Academy,  has  been  a  matter  of  doubt  in  the  minds  of 
some  eminent  lawyers.  In  the  litigation  consequent  on  the  exer- 
cise of  the  power  of  removal  in  the  case  of  Professor  Egbert  C. 
Smyth,  the  question  was  debated  before  the  Supreme  Court,  of 
Massachusetts.  The  decision  rendered  affirmed  the  constitution- 
ality of  their  relations. 


CRISIS  IN   THE  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS.      243 

tematic  Theology  needs  to  have  profoundness  of 
thought  and  precision,  and  these  are  the  very  qual- 
ities which  after  all  our  study  we  fail  to  find  in  Dr. 
Newman  Smyth."  Although  the  visitors  distinctly 
say  in  their  record  that  his  real  views  upon  the 
themes,  "sin,  the  atonement,  and  the  future  state  " 
"are  in  substantial  agreement  with  the  character- 
istic doctrinal  position  of  the  seminary,"  and  reiter- 
ate the  same  assertion  in  a  subsequent  minute,  it 
was  believed  by  many  that  the  hostility  to  his  ap- 
pointment exhibited  by  conservatives  on  account  of 
his  doctrinal  views  had  great  weight  with  the  visit- 
ors in  leading  them  to  negative  his  election. 

In  1886  "a  committee  of  certain  of  the  alumni " 
of  the  seminary  preferred  charges  against  five  of 
the  professors  on  distinct  gTounds,  wdiich  involv^e 
and  specify  infidelity  to  some  article  or  articles  of 
the  seminary  creed.  The  point  of  divergence  from 
the  belief  of  the  founders  which  has  received  great- 
est attention  is  what  is  often  erroneously  called 
"future  probation,"  or  more  exactly  the  belief  that 
"those  who  have  had  no  opportunity  to  learn  of  a 
Saviour  in  this  life  may  be  granted  such  an  oppor- 
tunity in  the  other  life."  That  several  of  the  pro- 
fessors at  Andover  held  this  doctrine  is  certain,  and 
was  wtII  understood  for  two  or  three  years  before 
the  charges  were  preferred  in  July,  1886.  The 
visitors  took  up  the  charges,  and  the  professors  were 
summoned  to  answer. 

The  graduates  of  the  seminary  abound  in  eastern 
Massachusetts,  but  are  pastors  of  churches  all  over 


244  MARK  HOPKINS. 

the  country.  All  these  graduates  and  the  Congre- 
gational churches  generally  were  deeply  interested 
in  the  prosecution.  Many  eminent  men  were  cer- 
tain that  the  professors  were  not  merely  heretical, 
but  dishonest.  Others  held  that  the  duty  to  the 
light  coming  from  the  Scriptures  specifically  re- 
quired in  connection  with  subscription  to  the  creed 
was  paramount.  Others  believed  that  articles  in 
the  creed  were  so  inconsistent  with  each  other,  and 
that  the  whole  document  was  so  plainly  a  reconcil- 
iation of  opposing  schools,  that  the  original  founders 
must  have  put  very  different  constructions  upon  dif- 
erent  parts  of  it.  Others  affirmed  that  there  could 
be  nothing  dishonorable  in  the  acceptance  of  an 
opinion  not  expressly  ruled  out,  and  indeed  not 
even  considered,  by  the  "founders"  and  "associate 
founders  "  of  the  seminary.  Many  others  waited  for 
the  issue  of  the  trial.  The  excitement  was  prob- 
ably greater  in  the  Congregational  circles  in  and 
about  Boston  than  elsewhere.  Boston  is  but  twenty- 
three  miles  from  Andover,  and  has  been  the  head- 
quarters of  the  "  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions  "  since  its  formation.  Nat- 
urally the  managers  of  this  great  society  were  pro- 
foundly affected  by  the  movement.  The  Congrega- 
tional House  at  Boston,  in  which  the  rooms  of  the 
American  Board  and  those  of  other  Congregational 
benevolent  societies  as  well  as  the  rooms  of  that 
newspaper  ^  which  had  been  zealous  for  the  prose- 
cution were  located,  the  head-centre  of  Congrega- 

^   The  Congregationalist. 


CRISIS  IX   THE  BOARD    OF  MISSIONS.     245 

tionalism,  was  doubtless  a  place  of  constant  dis- 
cussion both  before  and  after  tlie  charges  were 
preferred.  The  belief  in  a  future  opportunity  for 
repentance  for  those  who  have  had  no  knowledge 
of  Christ  in  this  life,  which  belief  has  seemed  gener- 
ally the  most  objectionable  of  the  Andover  views, 
had  adherents  outside  of  the  seminary  and  its  grad- 
uates among  clergymen  and  distinguished  laymen. 
Many  who  would  not  accept  this  belief  cherished 
a  hope,  without  laying  down  any  definite  mode  of 
divine  action,  that  the  issues  of  the  life  to  come  may 
not  in  every  case  have  been  determined  in  the  pres- 
ent life.  Probably  views  and  hopes  like  these  were 
more  generally  held  by  influential  Congregational- 
ists  in  and  about  Boston  in  1886  than  elsewhere  in 
our  country. 

It  was  perfectly  natural  that  those  gentlemen 
who  in  important  positions  looked  upon  such  views 
as  most  harmful  should  do  all  in  their  power  to 
discredit  them.  The  cry  was  early  raised  that 
the  "Andover  hypothesis,"  as  it  has  been  called, 
which  strictly  means  the  belief  that  an  opportu- 
nity after  death  to  know  Christ  and  repent  may 
be  granted  to  those  who  have  never  heard  of  Him 
in  this  life,  and  has  been  held  by  some  of  the 
ablest  theologians  of  this  century  in  England  and 
Germany,  and  which  is  certainly  as  old  as  the 
third  century  of  the  Christian  dispensation,  "cuts 
the  nerve  of  missions."  However  plausible  such  a 
statement  may  at  first  seem,  there  was  a  revival  of 
missionary  zeal  in  the  Andover  seminary  the  year 


246  MARK  HOPKIXS. 

immediately  preceding  the  prosecution.  In  that 
same  year,  1886,  candidates  for  missionary  ser- 
vice presented  themselves  to  the  Prudential  Com- 
mittee of  the  American  Board  from  the  Andover 
seminary.  In  one  or  two  cases  the  candidates  ac- 
cepted this  hypothesis,  or  rather  refused  to  deny 
the  possibility  of  its  truth.  Other  applicants  since 
have  looked  upon  the  ultimate  destiny  of  the 
heathen  who  have  not  heard  of  Christ  as  involved 
in  mystery,  and  have  had  some  sympathy  with  the 
"Andover"  view.  The  question  as  to  whether 
those  who  accepted  the  belief  that  for  such  as  had 
not  heard  the  gospel  in  this  life  a  knowledge  of 
Christ  after  death  would  be  given  might  be  sent  as 
missionaries  by  the  American  Board  arose  then  of 
necessity  in  the  committee  who  decide  upon  appli- 
cations. In  that  committee  some  went  so  far  in 
opposition  to  sending  such  as  to  avow  that  uncer- 
tainty in  the  mind  of  any  candidate  as  to  whether 
the  destiny  of  every  man  is  irrevocably  fixed  in 
this  life  disqualified  the  candidate  for  missionary 
service. 

Perhaps  the  gravest  case  of  hardship  was  that 
of  the  Rev.  Robert  A.  Hume,  a  man  of  singular 
devotion  to  his  Master  and  of  peculiar  efficiency 
in  the  Marathi  Mission,  who,  after  ten  years  of 
service,  was  enjoying  his  rest  in  this  country.  He 
expressed  himself  at  the  alumni  dinner  of  the 
Andover  seminary  as  finding  some  comfort  in  being 
able  to  say  to  thoughtful  heathen  that  he  was  not 
positive   that  all  their  ancestors  were    hopelessly 


CBISIS  IX   THE  BOARD   OF  MISSIONS.      247 

lost,  and  distinctly  intimated  that  the  explanation 
adopted  by  some  of  the  Andover  professors  would 
make  it  easier  for  him  to  carry  on  his  missionary 
work.  "I  can  say,"  are  his  words,  "not  only  for 
m3'self  but  for  a  considerable  number  of  workers 
in  the  field,  that  we  believe  there  is  light  in  this 
matter.  It  is  a  practical  question,  which  we  be- 
lieve is  going  to  receive  from  this  source  a  more 
Christian  and  helpful  solution."  He  was  the  son 
of  missionary  parents ;  he  was  passionately  devoted 
to  his  work ;  his  return  was  longed  for  by  his  col- 
leagues; the  nerve  of  his  love  for  the  poor  Hin- 
doos and  for  their  conversion  had  not  been  "cut," 
but  rather  stimulated  by  every  step  of  mental  and 
spiritual  growth.  A  purpose  was  at  ouce  mani- 
fested after  his  frank  but  tender  words  at  the  An- 
dover dinner  to  resist  his  return.  His  request  for 
the  privilege  of  resuming  his  work,  now  that  his 
vacation  had  expired,  was  answered  with  evasive 
postponement. 

The  applications  of  the  new  candidates  were 
practically  rejected  with  the  adoption  of  a  resolu- 
tion that  "it  is  inexpedient  to  appoint  at  present.^'' 
Here  was  certainly  a  new  condition,  a  crisis  in  the 
missionary  society  of  the  Congregational  churches. 
Many  large  contributors  regarded  this  refusal  to 
accept  young  men  who  longed  to  carry  "the  good 
news  "  of  God  to  a  dying  world,  and  especially  the 
cruel  treatment  of  Mr.  Hume,  as  certain  to  do  the 
greatest  injury  to  the  kingdom  of  Christ.  On  the 
other  hand,  many  said  that  these  young  men,  who 


248  MARK  HOPKINS. 

were  ready  to  leave  tlie  brightest  prospects  in  this 
country  to  fulfill  the  Saviour's  mission  and  to  par- 
take of  his  sufferings  in  benighted  foreign  lands, 
did  not  believe  that  this  is  "a  dying  world."  To 
cherish  a  hope  that  God  in  his  mercy  might  make 
Christ  known  to  those  who  had  not  heard  of  Him 
in  this  life  seemed  to  them  to  disqualify  for  mis- 
sionary service  a  man  who  was  so  deeply  in  earnest 
to  make  Christ  known  to  the  heathen  in  this  life 
that  he  was  ready  to  make  the  supreme  sacrifice  in 
order  to  go  and  preach  to  them  the  gospel. 

In  1871,  at  Salem,  Massachusetts,  the  follow- 
ing declaration  was  adopted  by  the  board :  — 

"Neither  this  board,  nor  the  Prudential  Com- 
mittee, are  in  any  wise  a  theological  court  to  settle 
doctrinal  points  of  belief,  but  a  body  instituted  by 
the  churches  to  make  known  the  gospel  of  Christ 
among  the  heathen  nations  and  those  who  sit  in 
darkness,  though  nominally  Christian,  and  estab- 
lish churches  among  them,  maintaining  that  faith, 
and  that  only,  which  is  universally  received  by  those 
Christian  bodies  whose  agents  they  are,  and  who 
furnish  the  funds  which  they  administer." 

In  opposition  to  this  declaration  the  Prudential 
Committee  of  the  board  had  now  begun  to  reject 
applicants  on  doctrinal  grounds.  A  disposition 
was  manifest  to  use  this  great  missionary  society 
for  suppressing  false  doctrine.  How  much  per- 
sonal antagonism  and  institutional  rivalry  mingled 
with  the  motives  arising  from  a  desire  for  a  pure 
gospel  no  one  should  attempt  to  say.     But  it  was 


CRISIS  IN   THE  BOARD   OF  MISSIONS.      249 

believed  by  men  of  judicial  temper  that  a  disposi- 
tion was  shown  as  early  as  the  meeting  in  Portland, 
Maine,  in  1884,  to  marshal  the  forces  of  the  board 
against  the  friends  of  what  has  been  called  ''the 
new  departure  "  in  theology. 

This  was  the  condition  of  things  in  the  autumn 
of  188G,  when  the  board  was  to  convene  in  Des 
Moines,  Iowa.  The  venerable  chairman  ^  of  the 
Prudential  Committee,  who  had  been  a  member  of 
that  body  for  twenty-nine  years,  was  so  disheart- 
ened by  the  resolute  determination  of  the  commit- 
tee to  exclude  from  missionary  service  those  whose 
views  were  not  definitely  fixed  as  to  the  impossibil- 
ity for  any  heathen  of  rejDcntance  after  death,  that 
he  prepared  to  resign  his  position.  With  him  Dr. 
Hopkins  had  a  warm  sympathy.  Without  any  par- 
ticidar  interest  in  the  "theory,"  he  felt  that  the 
discouragement  of  these  young  men  was  sure  to 
have  widespread  and  disastrous  consequences. 

The  action  of  the  Prudential  Committee  in  re- 
jecting young  men,  and  the  whole  tendency  of  the 
board  to  constitute  itself  a  theological  court  to  test 
the  soundness  of  candidates  on  the  most  obscure 
questions  of  doctrine.  Dr.  Hojikins  fully  disap- 
proved. His  whole  soul  condemned  the  introduc- 
tion of  partisanship  into  the  activities  of  the  board, 
and  his  mind  eagerly  sought  for  a  solution  of  the 
difficulties  that  should  enable  all  shades  of  belief 
to  work  together  in  harmony  for  the  conversion  of 
the  world. 

1  Hon.  Alpheus  Hardy,  of  Boston. 


250  MARK  HOPKIXS. 

The  debate  that  was  sure  to  come  at  Des  Moines 
opened  on  the  report  of  the  committee  to  which  the 
Annual  Report  of  the  Prudential  Committee  upon 
the  Home  Department  had  been  referred.  It  was 
a  debate  of  great  interest,  in  which  some  of  the 
ablest  men  of  the  denomination  took  part.  In  the 
course  of  the  debate  an  extract  from  a  letter  from 
the  newly  appointed  president  of  Yale  University 
was  read,  suggesting  the  ordinary  Congregational 
council  as  the  proper  tribunal  for  the  decision  of 
such  questions  as  the  Prudential  Committee  were 
considering.  It  was  after  that  suggestion,  which 
had  occurred  to  many,  and  seemed  to  Dr.  Hopkins 
as  probably  the  wisest  way  out  of  the  difficulties 
besetting  the  board,  that  he  made  the  following 
address :  — 

"  It  will  be  observed  that  President  Dwight  indi- 
cates a  feeling  of  fear  that  there  may  be  certain 
evils  resulting  from  a  reference  of  this  theological 
question  to  any  other  authority  than  that  which  is 
recognized  by  the  Congregational  polity.  I  think 
that  there  are  such  evils,  not  only  to  be  feared,  but 
are  now  present  in  connection  with  the  fact  that 
this  board,  through  its  committee,  does  exercise 
ecclesiastical  functions,  or  at  least  that  the  decision 
of  theological  questions  is  left  with  the  board  as  it 
is  represented  by  this  committee.  That  fact  does 
make  the  board  theological  in  a  certain  sense,  and 
in  a  sense  in  which  it  seems  to  me  to  have  already 
brought  with  it  serious  evils,  aside  from  those  which 
have  been  connected   with   the  discussions  in  the 


CRISIS  IX   THE  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS.     251 

Prudential  Committee.  One  of  these  evils  is  these 
theological  discussions  which  we  are  having  to-day. 
It  is  a  false  position  of  the  board  in  the  view  of  the 
public.  The  public  do  regard  the  board  as  a  the- 
ological body;  and  in  coming  here  it  was  in  all  the 
papers  that  the  great  business  of  this  board  was  to 
have  a  theological  discussion.  Now,  while  I  agree 
that  the  method  which  has  been  adopted  by  this 
Board  in  determining  the  theological  fitness  of  its 
candidates  has  worked  well,  —  and  I  honor  the  sec- 
retaries in  having  guarded  as  they  have  our  mis- 
sions from  the  entrance  of  incapable  men,  and  that 
guardianship  is  to  be  maintained,  —  yet  the  method 
by  which  this  Prudential  Committee  is  made  also  a 
theological  committee,  while  it  did  work  well  for 
a  time  while  the  conditions  were  favorable,  has  not 
worked  so  well  since  the  conditions  were  changed. 
It  seems  to  me  that  those  conditions  are  changed, 
and  that  the  method  has  fallen  into  a  place  some- 
what like  that  in  which  the  ship  fell  that  carried 
the  Apostle  Paul.  That  ship  got  into  a  place 
where  two  seas  met,  and  the  only  thing  to  be  done 
with  it  was  to  run  it  aground.  Now  it  seems  to 
me  that  the  method  —  not  the  committee,  but  the 
method  —  has  come  into  a  place  where  two  seas 
meet,  and  it  comes  to  be  a  serious  question  whether 
it  can  be  continued  wisely  by  the  board.  The 
board  has  been  placed  in  that  position  in  the  view 
of  the  public.  Now  if  the  board  had  originally 
adopted  this  policy,  or  one  that  is  in  accord  with 
the  resolution  that  has  been  read,  not  referring  at 


252  MARK  HOPKINS. 

all  a  theological  question  to  the  committee,  leav- 
ing them  simply  a  prudential  committee,  there 
would  have  been  no  lisp  of  any  difficulty  what- 
ever, and  all  this  trouble  would  have  been  saA^ed. 
That  is  one  evil  that  has  arisen ;  all  this  difficulty 
has  come  simply  from  the  fact  that  the  Pruden- 
tial Committee  have  been  a  theological  committee 

—  the  whole  of  it. 

"Another  difficulty  has  arisen.  Because  the 
board  has  been  considered  as  a  theological  body, 
and  a  theatre  for  debating  theological  questions, 
and  as  having  the  oversight  of  theological  questions, 
it  has  been  understood,  since  the  time  of  the  meet- 
ing of  the  board  in  Portland,  that  the  two  wings 

—  if  I  may  so  express  it  —  of  the  theological  world 
there  at  the  East  have  been  manoeuvring  on  the 
one  side  and  on  the  other  —  I  don't  say  it  is  so,  but 
it  has  been  said  to  be  so,  and  there  have  been  whis- 
perings in  the  air,  and  a  great  evil  has  arisen  in 
consequence  —  to  make  the  American  Board  a 
makeweight  in  theological  discussions.  The  Amer- 
ican Board  ought  never  to  know  anything  of  them. 
It  ought  not  to  be  in  a  position  in  which  that  could 
be  possible.  But  it  is  done,  and  in  connection 
with  the  action  of  the  Prudential  Committee  there 
has  been  a  great  alienation  of  feeling  in  the 
churches  of  Boston  towards  the  action  of  the  com- 
mittee. An  officer  of  one  of  those  churches  re- 
cently said  to  me  that  the  churches  of  Boston  would 
not  stand  it.  Now  all  this  comes  from  the  fact 
that  the  decision  of  theological  questions  is  in  the 


CRISIS  IN   THE  BOARD   OF  MISSIONS.      253 

hands  of  the  Prudential  Committee,  and  I  agree 
perfectly  with  Secretary  Clark  that,  if  it  were  pos- 
sible, the  decision  of  such  points  should  be  removed 
from  that  committee.  I  rather  inferred,  from 
what  Dr.  Alden  ^  said  as  to  the  entire  unity  be- 
tween himself  and  Dr.  Clark,  ^  knowing  that  Dr. 
Clark  believed  that  that  was  the  wisest  way,  that 
Dr.  Alden  also  knew  it  and  believed  it.  I  was 
delighted  to  hear  Dr.  Alden  say  that  he  regarded 
the  Congregational  body  as  thoroughly  orthodox, 
as  orthodox  as  the  Presbyterian  body;  and  I  could 
not  help  feeling,  when  he  said  that,  that  he  ought 
to  be  entirely  content,  and  rejoice  to  refer  all  theo- 
logical questions  to  such  an  orthodox  body!  I 
know  that  there  were  many  things  said  in  Dr. 
Alden 's  address  that  were  very  encouraging,  but 
there  were  other  things  which  were  not  said,  —  he 
was  not  called  upon  to  say  them,  —  namely,  that 
there  was  any  division  in  the  committee.  Now, 
in  connection  with  this  theological  question,  there 
was  a  division  in  the  committee,  and  the  chairman 
of  the  committee,  Mr.  Hardy,  I  know  was  decidedly 
and  strongly  on  the  other  side.  There  were  two 
members  of  the  committee  decidedly  and  strongly 
on  the  other  side.  Now  we  do  not  want  divisions 
in  the  committee.  We  know  how  excited  men  be- 
come in  theological  discussions,  and  w^e  do  not 
want  anything  of  this  kind  in  the  committee. 

"Now  I  should  like  to  know  if  it  is  not  in  the 

''  Secretaries,  or  managing-  officers  of  the  work  of  the  Board  of 
Commissioners  for  Foreign  Missions. 


254  MARK  HOPKINS. 

scope  and  power  of  the  Congregational  body,  of 
tliis  board,  with  the  Prudential  Committee  and  all 
its  wisdom,  to  devise  some  method  by  which  those 
questions  can  be  taken  out  of  the  discussion  and 
leave  the  Prudential  Committee  wholly  a  prudential 
committee,  and  not  a  theological  committee.  I  am 
inclined  to  think  that  if  the  Congregational  polity 
which  has  been  referred  to  in  the  letter  of  Presi- 
dent Dwight  is  not  adequate  to  the  provisions  of  a 
fit  ministry  for  the  missions,  if  it  is  not  adequate 
to  secure  such  orthodoxy  as  is  sufficient  and  proper 
in  connection  with  missionaries,  I  am  inclined  to 
think  that  that  polity  ought  not  to  be.  I  believe 
it  is  wholly  able  to'  secure  all  that  is  necessary. 
There  may  be  modifications  desirable,  but  I  know 
that  they  can  be  made,  and  I  trust  that  this  ques- 
tion will  not  be  settled  until  the  question  of  some 
method  of  removing  this  theological  question  from 
the  committee  and  from  the  board  shall  be  thor- 
oughly debated  and  thorough^  understood,  and 
if  possible  settled.  Possibly  not  in  this  meeting; 
I  do  not  see  that  it  can  be ;  but  I  wish  to  have  it 
come  thoroughly  before  the  board  and  before  all 
these  people,  so  that  the  condition  of  the  board 
as  a  non -theological  body  shall  stand  before  the 
country,  and  that  it  shall  not  be  considered  as  a 
theatre  for  theological  discussion." 

This  address  of  Dr.  Hopkins  was  not  without 
great  influence  upon  the  members  of  the  board. 
Conservative  men  expressed  themselves  as  willing 
that  the  exj)eriment  should  be  tried  of  settling  the 


CRISIS  IN  THE  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS.      255 

threatening  difficulties  by  means  of  councils.  The 
outcome  of  the  entire  debate  was  the  passage  of  the 
following  resolutions,  and  the  fourth  resolution  may- 
be regarded  as  largely  carried  through  Dr.  Hop- 
kins's influence. 

''''Resolved^  That  we  recognize  with  profound 
gratitude  the  continued  marks  of  favor  with  which 
our  Lord  and  Master  regards  this  great  work  of 
preaching  the  gospel  to  all  nations. 

^'' Resolved^  That  the  board  recognizes  and  ap- 
proves the  principle  upon  which  the  Prudential 
Committee  has  continued  to  act  in  regard  to  ap- 
pointments for  missionary  service,  in  strictly  con- 
forming to  the  well  understood  and  permanent 
basis  of  doctrinal  faith  upon  which  the  missions 
of  the  board  have  been  steadily  conducted,  and  to 
which,  in  the  exercise  of  its  sacred  trust,  the  com- 
mittee had  no  option  but  to  conform. 

^^  Resolved,  The  board  is  constrained  to  look 
with  grave  apprehension  upon  certain  tendencies  of 
the  doctrine  of  probation  after  death  which  has 
been  recently  broached  and  diligently  propagated, 
that  seem  divisive  and  perversive  and  dangerous  to 
the  churches  at  home  and  abroad.  In  view  of 
those  tendencies,  they  do  heartily  approve  of  the 
action  of  the  Prudential  Committee  in  carefully 
giiarding  the  board  from  any  committal  to  the 
approval  of  that  doctrine,  and  advise  a  continu- 
ance of  the  caution  in  time  to  come. 

"  Resolved,  The  board  recommends  to  the  Pru- 
dential Committee    to  consider  in  difficult  cases, 


256  MAMK  HOPKINS. 

turning  upon  doctrinal  views  of  candidates  for  mis- 
sionary service,  the  expediency  of  calling  a  council 
of  the  churches,  to  be  constituted  in  some  manner 
which  may  be  determined  by  the  good  judgment  of 
the  committee,  to  pass  upon  the  theological  sound- 
ness of  the  candidate,  and  the  committee  is  in- 
structed to  report  on  this  matter  to  the  board  at 
the  next  annual  meeting." 

There  was  a  hoj)efid  feeling  in  the  minds  of 
many  members  of  this  great  society,  when  its  ses- 
sions closed,  that  the  judgment  of  the  president 
would  have  weight  with  the  Prudential  Committee, 
but  the  capital  defect  of  the  last  resolution  was  the 
reference  to  this  committee  of  the  consideration 
of  a  method  by  which  the  perils  into  which  they 
had  led  the  society  could  be  averted.  They  were 
strongly  committed  .to  the  policy  of  excluding  from 
the  missionary  field  of  this  society  all  applicants 
whose  views  on  eschatological  questions  did  not 
harmonize  with  those  of  the  majority,  and  it  was 
a  foregone  conclusion  that  they  woidd  report  ad- 
versely to  the  proposal.  The  third  resolution  above 
quoted  commended  their  zeal  in  thus  guarding  the 
field  from  these  unworthy  api^licants,  and  the  pos- 
sibility that  by  any  method  any  such  applicant 
might  enter  into  this  labor  was  enough  to  condemn 
that  method. 

The  resolutions  seem  to  mean  that  no  one  having 
any  sympathy  with  the  doctrine  of  "  probation  after 
death  "  could  be  appointed,  and  that,  if  that  result 
could  be  secured  by  councils,  the  committee  might 
resort  to  councils. 


CBISIS  IN   THE  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS.      257 

The  council,  the  highest  authority  in  the  Con- 
gregational polity,  composed  generally  of  two 
delegates,  the  pastor  and  one  layman,  from  each 
of  the  churches  of  a  neighborhood  invited  by  the 
church  calling  the  council,  and  often  also  of  dis- 
tinguished ministers  and  laymen  from  a  distance  in 
addition  to  those  of  the  vicinity,  determines  the 
questions  preliminary  to  the  settling  and  remov- 
ing of  a  minister.  The  questions  also  on  which 
a  church  is  divided  are  often  solved  by  a  council 
agreed  to  by  each  party.  But  a  council  always 
determines  the  doctrinal  and  personal  fitness  of  a 
minister  for  his  work.  Very  rarely,  when  a  min- 
ister has  been  invited  by  a  church  and  parish  (two 
distinct  bodies  in  the  Congregational  polity,  both 
of  which  must  unite  in  order  that  a  minister  be 
properly  called),  does  the  council  invited  to  examine 
the  candidate  declare  him  doctrinally  unfit.  Great 
reluctance  is  naturally  felt  to  pronouncing  a  min- 
ister unsound  in  the  faith.  The  Conoreo^ational 
Church  in  New  England  has,  since  the  days  of  Hor- 
ace Bushnell,  been  increasingly  disposed  to  grant 
wide  liberty  in  doctrinal  opinions.  While  her 
ministry  embraces  less  divergent  views  than  the 
Church  of  England,  it  is  probable  that  individual 
shades  of  belief  are  not  less  numerous.  Of  late 
years  there  have  been  many  conservative  Congre- 
gationalists  who  were  inclined  to  the  opinion  that 
a  council  whose  members  were  judiciously  selected, 
or  were  taken  without  selection  from  the  more 
scholarly  communities,  would  confirm  any  minister 


258  MABK  HOPKINS. 

who  did  not  reject  the  deity  of  Christ.  After  the 
debate  at  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  in  1887,  on 
the  report  made  by  the  Prudential  Committee  with 
reference  to  the  final  resolution  given  above,  a 
resolution  to  the  effect  that  "this  board  does  not 
discredit  the  results  of  councils  as  representing  the 
doctrinal  judgments  and  fellowship  "of  the  Congi-e- 
gational  churches  "  was  rejected.  This  shows  how 
general  the  feeling  had  become  among  Congrega- 
tionalists  that,  as  Dr.  Hopkins  put  it  in  his  speech, 
"the  Congregational  polity  is  not  adequate  to  se- 
cure such  orthodoxy  as  is  sufficient  and  proper." 
If  Dr.  Hopkins  had  been  then  a  member  of  the 
Prudential  Committee,  his  influence  would  have 
secured  at  least  a  minority  report  in  favor  of  coun- 
cils which,  whatever  may  be  their  weakness,  are 
the  constitutional  court  for  deciding  doctrinal  ques- 
tions in  the  Congregational  Church.  The  last  time 
his  voice  was  heard  in  the  great  meetings  of  the 
American  Board  on  any  matter  of  business,  it  was 
for  the  peace  and  prosperity  that  can  come  only  by 
the  removal  of  theological  discussions  from  all  the 
meetings  of  the  board;  for  the  concentration  of 
all  the  forces  of  the  Congregational  Church  in  the 
prosecution  and  extension  of  its  great  missionary 
work. 

Dr.  Hopkins  returned  from  Des  Moines  to  AYil- 
liamstown  somewhat  wearied  by  the  long  journey 
and  the  continuous  strain  of  responsibility  for  the 
conduct  of  the  meetings,  and  by  the  anxiety  for  a 
peaceful  issue  to  the  difficult  and  exciting  ques- 


CRISIS  IN   THE  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS.      259 

tions  under  debate.  He  was  always  hopeful  that 
the  good  sense  and  reason  of  men  would  prevail 
over  prejudice  and  passion.  In  his  long  relations 
with  students  he  had  uniformly  relied  upon  the 
better  elements  in  their  nature.  He  had  always 
shown  a  calm  and  benignant  patience,  and  often 
that  patience  had  been  rewarded  by  the  reestablish- 
ment  in  a  pupil  of  the  earnest  purpose  to  do  well 
that  had  for  a  little  wavered.  He  befjan  ag^ain 
after  a  few  days  of  rest,  the  work  with  the  Senior 
class,  which  he  had  for  so  many  years  conscien- 
tiously performed.  The  period  of  instruction  dur- 
ing the  last  six  years  of  his  life  covered  something 
less  than  four  months,  generally  from  the  week  fol- 
lowing the  meeting  of  the  American  Board  in  Oc- 
tober to  a  point  beyond  the  middle  of  February. 
During  this  time  he  taught  the  Seniors  in  one  di- 
vision (the  classes  varied  in  the  Senior  year  from 
forty  to  sixty)  first  "An  Outline  Study  of  Man," 
and  after  that  "The  Law  of  Love  and  Love  as  a 
Law."  He  commonly  met  the  class  every  morning 
and  two  afternoons  each  week,  but  Saturday  morn- 
ing was  given  to  that  study  of  Vincent  on  the 
"Westminster  Assembly's  Shorter  Catechism," 
which  most  of  his  pupils  enjoyed  supremely.  In 
October,  1886,  he  began  to  teach  for  the  fifty -first 
time  the  elements  of  intellectual  philosophy  to  the 
Senior  class  of  the  college.  It  will  be  remembered 
that  he  became  professor  of  moral  philosophy  in 
1830,  so  that  this  was  the  fifty-seventh  year  of  his 
instruction  in  morals.     The  principles  underlying 


260  MARK  HOPKINS. 

these  departments  were  as  familiar  and  clear  to  him 
as  ever,  and  there  was  no  diminution  of  the  vigor 
with  which  he  announced  and  enforced  his  conclu- 
sions. The  chief  change  noticeable  in  his  conduct 
of  a  class  was  that  occasioned  by  the  gradual  fail- 
ure of  his  hearing.  He  was  perfectly  aware  of  this 
loss,  and  more  than  once  suggested  that  he  was 
ready  to  lay  down  the  burden  of  his  teaching  if  the 
college  could  be  better  served  by  his  doing  so.  But 
each  entering  class  looked  forward  to  his  instruc- 
tion. Each  graduating  class  counted  it  still  as  the 
chief  advantage  of  the  college  course  to  have  sat 
at  his  feet.  The  words  from  Rev.  Dr.  Spring's 
monograph  in  which  he  speaks  of  a  visit  in  this 
winter  to  one  of  his  recitations  may  well  be  quoted 
here : — 

"If  the  enthusiasm  which  burned  in  Dr.  Hop- 
kins's soul  was  different,  it  was  not  less  real.  It 
continued  for  threescore  years  with  no  abatement, 
—  at  least  I  could  discover  none  during  the  last 
weeks  of  his  work,  when  after  an  absence  of  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  I  visited  his  class-room.  It  was 
the  same  gracious  and  magnificent  personality  that 
I  had  known  and  revered  as  a  student.  When  I 
looked  at  him,  I  could  see  in  the  deeper  furrows 
that  crossed  his  brow,  in  the  greater  deliberation 
of  his  movements,  in  the  slight  deafness  that  at 
times  made  it  difficult  for  him  to  catch  the  answers 
of  the  class,  that  time  had  touched  him,  though 
but  tenderly.  Yet  if  I  closed  my  eyes,  the  old 
days  seemed  to  have  returned.     The  ear  reported 


CRISIS  IN   THE  BOARD   OF  MISSIONS.      261 

that  things  were  as  they  used  to  be.  He  was  then 
eighty-five  years  old,  but  his  intellectual  powers 
appeared  to  be  as  brilliant  as  ever,  and  his  inter- 
est as  keen  in  questions  which  he  had  discussed 
with  sixty  generations  of  students." 

The  months  slipped  away.  His  benignant  pres- 
ence moved  deliberately  about  the  streets  of  Wil- 
liamstown,  and  while  every  one  saw  that  his  step  was 
less  elastic  than  once,  there  was  no  perceptible  fail- 
ure either  in  mind  or  body.  His  interest  in  the 
college  that  he  had  so  long  loved  and  in  the  Mis- 
sionary Society  of  which  he  was  still  the  head  was 
as  keen  as  ever.  He  had  much  comfort  in  the 
slow  but  certain  growth  of  the  college  in  all  direc- 
tions, but  the  missionary  work,  or  rather  the  obsta- 
cles to  expansion  of  the  missionary  work,  were  still 
a  cause  of  unrest  and  fear  in  his  mind.  An  ap- 
plication was  made  in  January,  1887,  by  another 
Andover  student,  the  son  of  a  missionary,  to  the 
Prudential  Committee  for  permission  to  go  to 
Japan  in  the  service  of  the  board.  The  candidate 
had  sympathy  with  the  new  views.  He  was  in- 
formed that  the  committee  had  no  option  under  the 
Des  Moines  resolutions,  but  must  decline  to  appoint 
any  candidate  so  long  as  he  holds  these  views.  In 
February,  1887,  the  pressure  for  Mr.  Hume's  re- 
appointment from  all  sides  led  the  committee  to 
consent  to  his  return  to  India.  Mr.  Hume,  it 
should  be  said,  had  not  committed  himseK  fully 
to  the  acceptance  of  the  hypothesis  of  a  probation 
after  death  for  those  who  have  no  knowledge  of 


262  MABK  HOPKINS. 

Christ  in  this  life.  He  had,  however,  in  his  speech 
at  the  Andover  dinner,  shown  a  friendly  interest 
and  tolerance  for  that  speculation.  But  the  Pru- 
dential Committee  made  a  fine  distinction  between 
one  who  had  been  successful  as  a  missionary  and 
a  new  applicant  for  appointment.  A  renewed  ap- 
plication from  two  candidates,  one  of  whom  had 
been  refused  and  the  other  discouraged,  was  made 
to  the  committee  in  April,  1887.  The  position 
of  one  of  these  was  identical  with  that  of  Mr. 
Hume.     Both  applications  were  rejected. 

Meanwhile  the  agitation  for  and  against  councils 
as  the  proper  tribunal  to  settle  theological  ques- 
tions was  continued.  Dr.  Hopkins  had  taken  his 
stand  at  Des  Moines  in  favor  of  the  reference  of 
difficult  cases  to  councils.  Some  associations  in 
the  Congregational  body  had  discussed  the  ques- 
tion, and  had  arrived  at  decisions  for  or  against 
that  reference.  On  June  2,  1887,  fifteen  days  be- 
fore Dr.  Hopkins's  death,  an  article  appeared  in 
the  editorial  columns  of  the  "Independent "  headed 
"Councils  for  Foreign  Missionary  Candidates." 
Free  quotations  are  given  from  that  article,  as 
the  last  public  utterance  that  Dr.  Hopkins  made 
was  in  reply  to  its  positions,  and  appeared  in  the 
"Independent"  June  16,  the  day  before  his  death. 
That  utterance  of  Dr.  Hopkins  must  be  given  en- 
tire, and  it  will  be  much  more  intelligible  after  the 
quotations  from  the  paper  to  which  it  is  an  answer. 

The  editorial  in  the  "Independent"  begins  as 
follows:  — 


CRISIS  IX   THE  BOARD   OF  MISSIONS.      263 

"  It  is  of  course  natural  that  those  who  favor  the 
new  and  as  it  seems  to  us  the  very  dangerous  doc- 
trine of  a  probation  after  death  should  be  zealous 
in  the  effort  to  substitute  scattered  occasional  coun- 
cils in  place  of  the  Prudential  Committee,  as  pri- 
mary judges  of  the  theological  fitness  of  candidates 
for  missionary  service  under  the  care  of  the  Ameri- 
can Board.  This  gives  the  only  available  chance 
of  getting  their  objectionable  hypothesis  into  mis- 
sionary fields,  and  of  having  it,  in  an  indirect  fash- 
ion, practically  authorized  and  indorsed  by  the 
board.  Their  eagerness  for  it  is  no  more  difficult 
of  explanation  than  the  eagerness  of  a  man  who 
has  written  a  book  not  generally  acceptable  to  get 
it  recommended  by  those  who  can  secure  for  it  a 
generous  circulation. 

"It  is  almost  equally  a  matter  of  course  that  any 
who,  without  committing  themselves  to  this  partic- 
ular speculation,  are  chronically  if  not  constitu- 
tionally favorable  to  whatever  is  indefinite  in  the- 
ological statement,  should  be  on  the  same  side, 
ready  and  eager  for  any  contrivance  which  they 
think  may  open  gates  and  lower  bars  in  the  fences 
which  define  the  orthodox  field,  and  may  leave 
missionaries  and  ministers  freer  for  self -approved 
departures  from  the  faith  of  the  Fathers." 

Other  quotations  necessary  to  the  understand- 
ing of  Dr.  Hopkins's  reply  are  as  follows:  — 

"  The  man  is  sent,  not  to  a  service  likely  to  be 
brief,  like  that  of  an  imperfect  pastorate  at  home, 
but  to  one  naturally  expected  and  intended  to  con- 


264  MABK  HOPKIXS. 

tinue  for  life  :  only  to  be  terminated,  before  death, 
after  long  inquiry,  a  long  correspondence,  a  final 
reluctant  action  of  the  committee.  Indeed,  it  does 
not  appear  how  the  committee  can  properly  recall 
its  appointee  at  all  unless  another  council,  sitting 
somewhere  or  other,  shall  have  judged  him  un- 
sound. Even  then  some  are  dissatisfied,  naturally 
enough,  because  he  was  sent,  and  so  much  conse- 
crated money  has  been  wasted.  Others  are  dissat- 
isfied because  he  has  been  recalled.  The  result 
is  inevitable,  in  diminished  contributions,  divided 
churches,  hostile  parties.  The  discreet  and  saga- 
cious system  of  the  board,  so  carefully  framed,  so 
wisely  and  so  safely  administered  through  a  long 
course  of  years,  so  successful  in  its  results,  is 
rudely  broken  up  to  meet  the  demand  of  the  rash 
innovation,  —  an  innovation  called  for  by  nothing 
whatever  except  the  desire  to  force  new  theories 
into  the  board,  and  distinctly  to  remove  it  from 
its  old  and  firm  basis  of  doctrine.  The  effort  to 
make  seminaries  teach  speculative  theories  contrary 
to  their  creeds,  which  has  been  partly  successful, 
has  its  counterpart  and  its  complement  in  this  effort 
to  make  the  American  Board  circulate  doctrines 
which  most  of  its  members  do  not  believe,  and  at 
which  its  founders  would,  literally,  have  stood 
aghast ! 

"We  quite  expect  that  not  only  those  who  favor 
this  latest  mischievous  theory  will  be  united  in  ef- 
fort to  displace  the  established  method  of  the  board, 
but  that  others  will  agree  with  them,  as  we  have 


CBISIS  IX   THE  BOARD   OF  MISSIONS.      265 

suggested,  who  have  themselves  some  pet  specula- 
tion not  accepted  by  the  churches ;  who  are  per- 
haps Universal ists  in  petto,  or  who  deem  the  Bible 
a  natural  product  of  the  religious  life  of  its  writers, 
with  no  divine  gaiidance  and  aid  to  make  it  the 
Book  of  God  for  the  world;  those  who  find  the 
only  contents  of  the  Atonement  in  the  coming  of 
Christ  and  his  gracious  example,  its  only  virtue  in 
the  effect  of  his  mission  on  human  hearts.  All 
such  will  combine,  as  a  matter  of  course,  to  make 
occasional  temporary  councils  the  only  judges  of 
theological  soundness  in  missionary  candidates,  and 
will  regard  others  as  violently  'obstructive'  be- 
cause they  oppose  it.  With  them  may  be  united 
those  who  hold  the  old  faith,  l)ut  to  whom  animated 
discussion  seems  a  breach  of  charity,  who  would  like 
to  make  all  things  pleasant  to  everybody,  who  par- 
ticularly desire  to  exclude  debate  from  the  meet- 
ings of  the  board,  and  to  have  the  entire  utterance 
of  those  meetings  one  of  profuse  and  amiable  gush." 
From  this  long  and  able  article  other  quotations 
would  be  interesting,  but  these  are  the  points  to 
which  Dr.  Hopkins  replied.  The  views  expressed 
are  not  merely  stoutly  opposed  to  councils  for  the 
decision  of  the  theological  fitness  of  applicants  for 
missionary  work,  but  present  the  utility  of  the 
council  to  the  Congregational  Church  generally,  as 
of  doubtful  value  especially  in  the  difficult  cases 
which  arise  among  applicants  for  pulpits  in  this 
country  not  less  frequently,  perhaps  more  fre- 
quently, than  among  applicants  for  service  in  the 


266  MA  BE  HOPKINS. 

foreign  field.  Doubtless  a  macliine  might  be  de- 
vised that  would  secure  greater  uniformity  of  belief 
among  the  ministers  of  the  Congregational  body, 
but  Dr.  Hopkins  did  not  believe  that  this  is  the 
time  for  the  introduction  of  such  a  machine.  Nor 
did  he  ever  assent  to  the  opinion  that  mathemat- 
ical orthodoxy  is  more  essential  in  a  young  man 
who  invites  the  ignorant  and  degraded  heathen  to 
"behold  the  Lamb  of  God"  as  the  Saviour  of  his 
soul  than  in  the  American  preacher.  With  a  vigor 
and  a  jDositiveness  born  of  a  noble  liberality  and  a 
nobler  love  of  men  and  Christ  as  the  Redeemer  of 
men  he  sent  the  following  letter  to  the  "Independ- 
ent "  in  reply  to  its  editorial  article  of  June  2.  The 
letter  appeared  June  16.  He  died  the  next  morn- 
ing. It  is  then  at  once  his  valedictory  address  as 
the  president  of  the  great  society  for  saving  the 
world  and  his  final  appeal  to  the  churches. 

To  THE  Editor  of  the  Ixdepexdext  :  — 

In  your  paper  of  this  week  is  an  editorial  on  "  Coun- 
cils in  Connection  with  the  American  Board  "  which  I 
have  just  read  with  surprise  and  sorrow.  So  far  as  it  is 
an  argument,  and  it  is  an  able  one,  saying,  perhaps,  all 
that  can  be  said  against  councils,  I  welcome  it ;  but  so  far 
as  it  insinuates  looseness  of  doctrine  and  heresy  on  the 
part  of  those  who  favor  councils,  and  imputes  to  them 
unworthy  motives,  both  of  which  it  does  largely,  I  de- 
plore it.  No  man  is  omniscient,  and  I  had  hoped  that 
that  mode  even  of  theological  controversy  had  passed 
away. 

I  have  favored  councils,  and  shall  continue  to  do  so  if 


cms  IS  IN    THE  BOAUl)   OF  MISSIONS.       2G7 

no  better  way  can  be  foiiml  of  obviating-  the  present 
difficulties  of  the  board.  But  in  doing  this  1  deny  tliat 
I  belong  to  any  one  of  the  classes  into  which  your  arti- 
cle divides  those  who  favor  them.  I  deny  that  I  belong 
to  the  class  "  who  favor  the  new,  and  as  it  seems  to  us, 
very  dangerous  doctrine  of  probation  after  death."  I 
deny  that  I  belong  to  the  class  "  who,  without  connnit- 
ting  themselves  to  this  particular  speculation,  are  chron- 
ically, if  not  constitutionally  favorable  to  whatever  is 
indefinite  in  theological  statement,"  and  are  "  ready  and 
eager  for  any  contrivance  which  they  think  may  open 
gates  and  lower  bars  in  the  fences  which  define  the  or- 
thodox field."  I  refuse  to  suffer  to  pass  without  chal- 
lenge the  astounding  assertion,  applicable  to  all  who 
favor  councils,  that  their  introduction  would  be  "  an 
innovation  called  for  by  nothing  whatever  except  the 
desire  to  force  new  theories  into  the  board,  and  dis- 
tinctly to  remove  it  from  its  old  and  firm  basis  of  doc- 
trine." I  deny  that  "  the  effort  to  make  seminaries 
teach  speculative  theories  contrary  to  their  creeds,  which 
has  been  partly  successful,  has  its  counterpart  and  its 
complement  in  this  effort  to  make  the  American  Board 
circulate  doctrines  which  most  of  its  members  do  not 
believe,  and  at  which  its  founders  literally  would  have 
stood  aghast."  On  the  contrary,  it  has  been  asserted, 
and  I  suppose  truly,  that  the  first  attempt  to  use  the 
board  as  a  theological  makeweight,  or,  as  I  have  heard 
it  expressed,  to  make  it  a  pawn  on  the  chess-board  of 
theological  controversy  in  this  country,  was  made  years 
ago,  and  has  been  persistently  continued  by  those  who 
favor  the  present  policy.  At  this  point  it  seems  to  me 
that  judicious  friends  of  the  board  can  have  but  one 
wish,  and  that  is  that  it  should  decline  to  be  used  by 


268  MARK  HOPKINS. 

anybody,  should  have  no  partisanship,  as  far  as  possible 
should  keep  aloof  from  seminaries  and  theological  con- 
troversies, and  should  steadily  pursue  its  aj^propriate 
work  of  sending  out  suitable  missionaries,  dealing  di- 
rectly and  fairly  with  each  individual  candidate. 

I  deny  again  that  I  can  be  classed  with  those  "  who 
hold  the  old  faith,  but  to  whom  animated  discussion 
seems  a  breach  of  charity,  who  would  like  to  make  all 
things  pleasant  to  everybody,  who  particularly  desire  to 
exclude  debate  from  the  meetings  of  the  board,  and  to 
have  the  entire  utterance  of  those  meetings  one  of  pro- 
fuse and  amiable  gush."  It  is  true  that  I  did  object  at 
Des  Moines,  and  should  again,  to  the  discussion  of  the 
abstract  question  of  the  truth  of  the  doctrine  of  a  future 
probation.  This  I  did  because  it  was  not  in  the  line  of 
the  proper  work  of  the  board  ;  because  the  decision  of 
such  a  body  on  such  a  question  could  be  of  no  author- 
ity and  of  no  use,  and  especially  because  that  was  not 
the  real  question  before  the  board.  The  real  question 
was  either  not  perceived,  or  was  evaded.  It  was  not, 
whether  the  doctrine  is  true  or  false,  but  whether  the 
board  would  send  out  men  who  had  doubts  respecting 
it.  That  question  I  should  like  to  have  discussed.  I 
should  be  pleased  if  some  one  would  move  at  the  next 
meeting  of  the  board  that  the  Prudential  Committee  be 
instructed  not  to  send  out  any  one  who  has  any  doubt 
on  the  subject  of  a  future  probation  —  who  is  not  as 
certain  that  there  will  be  no  such  probation  as  he  is  of 
the  being  of  God.  In  the  discussion  of  such  a  motion 
I  should  expect  to  hear  something  besides  '"  gush."  If 
it  should  pass,  as  I  do  not  think  it  should,  I  should 
acquiesce  cheerfully  and  wait.  I  might,  perhaps,  think 
the  board  was   composed   of   old  men,  but  should  im- 


CRISIS  IN  THE  BOARD   OF  MISSIONS.      269 

pute  to  them  no  bad  motive.  If  that  should  not  pass, 
I  should  be  glad  if  some  one  would  move  that  the  com- 
mittee be  instructed  to  send  out  no  one  who  should  so 
hold  the  doctrine  that  he  would  feel  obliged  to  preach 
it ;  thus  leaving  each  one  free  to  have  doubts  and  form 
his  opinions,  and  deal  with  the  subject  as  best  he  may. 
For  such  a  motion  I  would  vote.  I  think  it  should 
satisfy  the  conservatives,  and  would  not  be  objected  to 
by  the  progressives.  The  board  should  represent  its 
constituency,  and  I  do  not  believe  that  any  considerable 
number  of  them  wish  to  send  out  men  who  will  preach 
that  doctrine.  Perhaps  this  would  be  the  best  way  out 
of  the  present  difficulty.  If  the  board  itself  would  give 
such  instruction,  I  should  be  willing  to  let  the  matter  of 
councils  rest  where  it  is  for  the  present.  We  should 
then  have  a  definite  policy.  Every  candidate  would 
know  precisely  what  to  expect,  and  there  would  be  no 
need  to  write  letters  to  ascertain  what  the  direction  of 
the  board  really  was.  It  will  be  seen,  then,  that  I  am  in 
favor  of  a  full  discussion  of  all  questions  relating  to  the 
qualifications  of  candidates.  I  am  also  in  favor  of  such 
discussion  in  relation  to  the  constitution  and  all  methods 
of  procedure  of  the  board. 

The  above  denials  I  make,  not  solely  on  my  own  be- 
half, but  on  behalf  of  the  great  body  of  those  whose 
minds  have  been  turned  toward  councils  as  a  source  of 
relief  from  the  difficulties  into  which  the  board  has  been 
brought  through  the  policy  pursued  at  the  Mission 
Rooms.  These  difficulties  cannot  be  denied,  though 
they  are  wholly  ignored  in  your  article.  It  cannot  be 
denied  that  the  feelings  of  large  numbers  of  the  constit- 
uents of  the  board  have  been  severely  tried,  if  not 
ahenated,  by  that  policy,  that  their  contributions  have 


270  MARK  HOPKINS. 

been  given  under  protest,  and  that  the  students  of  sev- 
ei'al  seminaries  have,  as  a  body,  felt  themselves  rebuffed 
and  repelled.  It  has  been  solely  in  view  of  these,  and 
of  other  evils  that  have  been  mentioned,  but  of  which  I 
need  not  speak,  that  my  own  mind  has  been  led,  and  as 
I  believe,  the  minds  of  ninety-nine  hundredths  of  those 
who  are  dissatisfied  with  the  present  policy  have  been 
led  to  look  to  councils  for  relief.  Those  who  thus  look 
are,  in  my  belief,  as  earnestly  attached  to  the  board,  as 
ready  to  make  sacrifices  for  missions,  and  as  desirous 
that  the  glorious  gospel  of  the  blessed  God,  in  all  its 
fullness  and  power,  should  be  carried  to  mission  fields, 
as  are  those  who,  with  whatever  good  intentions,  are 
constantly  making  insinuations  against  them,  and  substi- 
tuting these  in  the  place  of  argument. 

You  say  well  in  your  article  that  "  there  is  no  profit 
in  idealizing  councils."  I  agree  with  you.  There  are 
objections  to  councils.  I  have  no  zeal  for  them,  or  for 
anything  else  that  is  simply  instrumental.  My  object  in 
this  paper  has  not  been  to  answer  objections  to  them. 
If  the  present  policy  can  be  so  modified  as  to  produce 
harmony,  I  would  not  disturb  it.  If  not,  I  believe  that 
we  should  have,  on  the  whole,  as  sound,  as  faithful,  and 
as  successful  a  body  of  missionaries  through  the  proposed 
agency  of  councils  as  we  have  now. 

But  while  you  say  what  you  do  of  idealizing  councils, 
I  would  it  had  occurred  to  you  to  say  the  same  of  com- 
mittees. This  might  have  been  hoped  for,  especially 
since  the  following  words  concerning  it  of  one  long 
chairman  of  the  committee  have  been  so  recently  and 
emphatically  given  to  the  public.  "  I  believe,"  he  says, 
"there  has  been,  during  the  past  few  years,  a  divergence 
in  the  practical  management  of  one  part  of  the  board's 


CRISIS  IN   THE  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS.      271 

work,  which  has,  to  some  extent,  brought  the  board 
from  its  broad,  catholic,  '  undenominational '  position  to 
be  a  partisan  in  questions  that  are  not  within  its  prov- 
ince, are  local,  in  a  measure  personal,  and  divisive." 
The  committee  have  done  noble  work,  and  are  to  be 
honored,  but  they  are  liable  to  mistakes,  and  the  results 
even  of  their  examinations  have  not  always  been  perfect. 
I  happen  to  know  that  a  faithful  and  successful  mission- 
ary now  in  the  field  held  firmly  to  this  doctrine  of  a 
future  probation  when  he  passed  his  examination  some 
few  years  since,  and  yet  the  subject  was  either  wholly 
ignored,  or  passed  by  as  unessential.  If  the  present 
policy  were  consistently  carried  out,  I  suppose  this  man 
and  several  others  would  be  recalled. 

What  may  be  done  in  the  meeting  at  Springfield  I  do 
not  know,  but  look  forward  to  it  with  hope.  In  the 
mean  time,  I  heartily  join  with  you,  as  also,  I  am  sure, 
do  the  great  body  of  those  who  look  toward  councils,  in 
the  desire  "  to  save  from  all  complicity  with  unbelief  a 
great  institution  in  which,  to  an  important  degree,  the 
life  of  the  Church  is  involved  and  revealed,  which  has 
the  world  for  the  sphere  of  its  work,  and  which  will 
have  its  grand  offices  to  accomplish  for  the  Lord  when 
we  are  gone. 

Williams  College,  June  3,  1887- 

In  answer  to  tbis  letter  in  the  same  number  of 
the  newspaper  in  which  it  appeared  was  another 
editorial  article.  It  is  not  worth  while  to  give  its 
positions  in  full,  as  they  did  not  come  under  the 
eye  of  Dr.  Hopkins,  and  we  are  concerned  only 
with  his  relations  to  the  crisis.  The  positions  rest 
on  the  assertion  that  the  doctrine  of  probation  after 


272  MARK  HOPKINS. 

death  for  any  is  a  very  dangerous  heres}',  so  dan- 
gerous, at  least,  that  he  who  holds  it  ought  not  to 
become  a  missionary  of  the  cross  even  from  a  so- 
ciety in  which  many  large  contributors  are  inclined 
to  look  with  favor  on  the  doctrine.  The  positions 
taken  regard  the  Prudential  Committee  as  espe- 
cially well  adapted  to  prevent  the  sending  of  heret- 
ical missionaries,  and  reiterate  the  objections  to 
councils  previously  given,  and  insist  that  the  change 
from  the  old  method  and  reference  to  a  council 
would  be  an  "innovation  called  for  by  nothing 
whatever  but  a  desire  to  force  new  theories  into  the 
board." 

The  last  paragraph  or  two  of  the  article  may  well 
be  quoted,  as  illustrating  the  kind  of  appeal  that 
was  made  to  Dr.  Ho^jkins  during  the  last  months 
of  his  life. 

"Dr.  Hopkins  could  add  no  more  distinguished 
and  honorable  service,  crowning  the  noble  work  of 
his  life,  and  making  his  name  illustrious  and  emi- 
nent for  all  time  to  come  in  the  history  of  the 
American  church,  than  by  saying  at  Sj)ringfield : 
'This  has  gone  far  enough  I  We  are  not  a  theo- 
logical court,  and  it  is  not  our  function  to  search  out 
heresies,  or  to  condemn  them.  But  this  board  was 
established,  and  it  exists,  to  proclaim  to  the  world 
the  gospel  of  salvation  by  immediate  repentance 
and  faith  in  the  Kedeemer.  Any  theory  which 
gives  encouragement  to  delay  is  outside  of  our  lim- 
its, and  adverse  to  our  work.  It  cannot  have 
admission  among  us.     We  send  the  gospel  to  men 


CRISIS  IN   THE  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS.      273 

in  this  world,  because  we  do  not  expect  them  to 
receive  it  after  earth  shall  have  closed  probation. 
That  is  the  faith  in  which  our  work  had  its  origin. 
That  is  the  faith  now  held  by  our  churches ;  and 
with  that  our  messengers  must  be  in  accord.  If 
others  think  that  they  have  another  scheme  of 
truth,  better  and  larger,  to  proclaim  to  mankind, 
we  cannot  change,  but  for  them  the  world  is  open.' 

"  Such  a  word  from  him  would  be  like  Welling- 
ton's final  command  to  the  unshaken  squares  on  the 
ridge  of  Waterloo.  Better  than  that ;  it  would  be 
like  Paid's  address  to  the  elders,  when  men  were 
to  arise  among  them  speaking  perverse  things.  It 
would  bring  such  a  power  from  on  high  upon  the 
assembly  as  could  the  word  of  no  other  man.  We 
reverently  believe  that  the  spirits  of  those  who  have 
given  long  labor,  and  life  itself,  to  the  service 
of  the  Master,  in  the  name  of  the  cooperating 
churches,  and  by  the  proclamation  of  the  one  divine 
message,  would  hail  it  with  a  triumph  of  gladder 
praise  from  thrones  amid  the  heavenly  light  I  We 
have  lived  too  long  to  overrate  the  imj)ortance  of 
particidar  occasions.  But  it  seems  to  us  that  no 
opportunity  nobler  than  this  has  been  offered  to 
man  since  Mills  was  touched,  almost  eighty  years 
since,  with  the  divine  fire." 

Though  Dr.  Hopkins  did  not  read  this  appeal, 
he  had  many  private  letters  to  the  same  purport. 
They  struck  various  notes  of  admiration,  praise, 
or  warning,  according  to  the  disposition  of  the 
writer.     One  letter  from  a  well-known  clergyman 


274  MARK  HOPKINS. 

suggested  that  the  close  of  his  administration  of 
the  American  Board  might  become  like  that  of 
James  Buchanan's  administration  of  the  federal 
government.  The  parallel  was  sufficiently  strik- 
ing, but  not  very  apt. 

There  is  no  reason  to  believe  that  Dr.  Hopkins 
would  have  changed  his  position.  When  he  had 
once  taken  a  position  he  was  tenax  pi'opositi.  He 
had  a  firm  faith  in  the  ultimate  ascendency  of 
truth  and  wisdom,  and  he  died  in  that  faith.  The 
exclusion  of  young  men  from  missionary  work  be- 
cause of  an  unwillingness  to  assert  that  the  destiny 
of  every  one  is  irrevocably  fixed  at  death  he  regarded 
as  in  direct  disobedience  to  the  Master's  command, 
"  Go  ye  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the  gospel  to 
every  creature,"  but  independently  of  that  feeling 
he  thought  that  great  harm  Avould  come  to  the  mis- 
sionary cause  from  the  exclusion  by  one  permanent 
body,  even  if  any  candidates  ought  to  be  excluded. 
Less  than  four  months  after  his  death  the  corpo- 
rate members  of  the  board  at  Springfield  rejected 
by  an  overwhelming  majority  his  parting  advice. 
That  was  partly  because  the  issue  had  been  rather 
adroitly  shifted,  and  partly  because  the  liberals, 
knowing  that  they  were  in  the  minority,  preferred 
to  confine  their  efforts  to  polling  as  large  a  vote  as 
possible  in  favor  of  officers  who  would  sympathize 
with  a  gentler  policy  towards  the  young  applicants. 
The  fifty -five  votes  that  were  cast  for  President 
Angell  of  Michigan  University  as  the  successor  to 
Dr.  Hopkins  were  votes  representing  largely  the 


CBISIS  IN  THE  BOARD  OF  MISSIONS.      275 

educated  brain  and  the  tender  heart  of  New  Ens^- 
land.  Many  of  them  were  cast  with  a  thought  of 
affectionate  honor  for  Dr.  Hopkins's  far-sighted 
and  heroic  defense  of  the  Congregational  polity. 
His  vision  was  accurate.  The  troubles  are  not  yet 
wholly  composed.  The  belief  still  exists  in  the 
minds  of  able  men  that  to  follow  his  advice  would 
be  the  safe  and  happy  issue. 


THE  FRIEND. 


"  O  friend,  my  bosom  said, 
Through  thee  alone  the  sky  is  arched, 
Through  thee  the  rose  is  red : 
All  things  through  thee  take  nohler  form, 
And  look  beyond  the  earth, 
The  mill-round  of  our  fate  appears 
A  sun-path  in  thy  worth. 
Me  too  thy  nobleness  has  taught  • 
To  master  my  despair. 
The  fountains  of  my  hidden  life 
Are  through  thy  friendship  fair." 

Emerson,  Friendship. 


CHAPTER  XL 

THE  FRIEND. 

In  1837  Dr.  Hopkins  was  the  orator  before  the 
"Porter  Rhetorical  Society  "of  the  Anclover  Theo- 
logical Seminary.  That  was  the  summer  at  the 
close  of  his  first  year's  service  as  president  of  the 
collesre.  On  this  occasion  he  met  for  the  first  time 
Rev.  Ray  Palmer,  then  settled  over  the  Central 
Church  in  Bath,  Maine,  with  whom  he  later  formed 
an  intimate  friendship,  wdiich  continued  to  the  end 
of  his  life.  The  attachment  was  based  on  strong 
affinities  in  taste  and  work,  and  was  all  the  more 
enjoyable  that  the  gifts  of  the  two  men  were  very 
different. 

While  Dr.  Palmer  was  for  a  good  deal  of  his 
life  absorbed  in  the  work  of  a  city  pastorate  and 
came  more  closely  into  relation  with  the  feelings 
and  wants  of  ordinary  people,  he  was  a  scholar  in 
philosophy  and  ethics,  and  was  wholly  able  to  appre- 
ciate Dr.  Hopkins's  investigations  and  discussions. 
When  Dr.  Palmer  reviewed  the  "Lectures  on 
Moral  Science"  in  the  "North  American  Review," 
Dr.  Hopkins's  comment  was:  "My  reviewer  under- 
stands my  system  better  than  I  do  myself."     This 


280  MARK  HOPKIXS. 

bit  of  pleasantry  was  more  than  an  expression  of 
affectionate  regard.  It  was  a  mark  of  high  es- 
teem. 

Dr.  Hopkins's  instrument  of  expression  was 
prose.  His  most  eloquent  passages,  full  of  emo- 
tion and  beauty  as  they  were,  he  could  not  have 
put  into  perfect  rhythmical  form.  He  had  a  great 
admiration  of  good  poetry,  and  his  excellent  native 
judgment  was  developed  by  the  studies  that  he 
made  when  professor  of  "Moral  Philosophy  and 
Rhetoric."  He  became  familiar  with  the  leading 
English  poets  during  those  six  years,  and  the  quota- 
tions that  he  made  in  his  lectures  were  always  ap- 
propriate and  effective.  Mrs.  Lesley,  in  the  charm- 
inof  volume  containino^  recollections  of  her  mother 
Mrs.  Judge  Lyman,  of  Northampton,  gives  a  let- 
ter from  Mrs.  Lyman,  who  heard  Dr.  Hopkins 
lecture  in  Northampton  in  1845,  and  makes  this 
reference  to  the  lecture  :  "He  exemplified  his 
subject  by  a  great  many  appropriate  figures  and  the 
introduction  of  a  great  deal  of  fine  poetry."  He 
was  fond  of  beautiful  hymns,  and  the  contributions 
that  Dr.  Palmer  made  to  the  hymnology  of  the 
churches  were  undoubtedly  an  element  that  pro- 
moted the  friendship. 

The  letters  that  Dr.  Hopkins  wrote  to  Dr.  Pal- 
mer, most  frequent  between  1860  and  1875,  were 
carefully  preserved  by  Dr.  Palmer,  and  through  the 
kindness  of  his  son.  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Ray  Palmer, 
of  Bridgeport,  Connecticut,  extracts  are  given  from 
these  letters.     They  illustrate  more  perfectly  what 


THE  FRIEND.  281 

Dr.  Hopkins  was  in  tlie  free  familiar  movement  of 
social  intimacy  than  any  other  accessible  record. 

WiLLLA-Ms  College,  August  28,  1874. 

Among  the  first  things  I  do,  my  dear  Doctor, 
on  getdng  home  is  to  remember  my  indebtedness 
to  you,  and  to  give  some  account  of  myself. 

I  am  just  back  from  your  native  State,  and  from 
within  sight  of  Little  Compton.^  While  there 
I  had  a  call  from  Mr.  Rowland  G.  Hazard,  who 
wrote  a  treatise  on  the  Will  and  some  letters  to 
Mill  on  Cause  and  Effect.  On  the  WiU  I  think 
him  right  as  to  the  fact  of  liberty,  but  wrong  as  ti) 
the  point  where  he  places  it.  He  says  it  is  at  the 
point  of  effort,  and  that  choice  is  wholly  an  intel- 
lectual operation,  at  which  I  am  surprised.  But 
on  Cause  and  Effect  he  is  able  and  right  and,  I 
think,  disposes  effectually  of  both  Mill  and  Ham- 
ilton. He  spent  some  days  with  Mill,  and  had  a 
long  discussion  with  him.  He  invited  the  party 
—  four  of  us  —  to  dine  and  to  tea,  and  gave  us  a 
ride.  He  is  a  business  man,  a  fine  mathematician, 
and  I  had  much  pleasure  in  making  his  acquaint- 
ance, and  I  dare  say  you  know  all  about  him.  He 
lives  at  Peacedale,  and  he  and  his  son  have  put  up 
a  most  beautiful  Congregational  church,  they  say, 
the  most  beautiful  in  the  country. 

Charles  wrote  me  that  you  spoke  to  him  of  the 
English  issue  of  my  book,  and  he  offered  to  pro- 
cure me  a  copy.     It  has  just  come,  and  is  a  decided 

^  Dr.  Palmer's  birthplace. 


282  MARK  HOPKINS. 

improvement  on  the  native  copy.  They  are  better 
book-makers  over  there.  The  dress  of  a  book  does 
make  a  difference,  and  I  think  it  was  a  mistake  not 
to  put  it  in  better  shape  here. 

Williams  College,  October  £0,  1874. 

On  parting  from  you  at  Rutland  we  came  di- 
rectly home.  Since  that  I  have  been  hearing  the 
class,  and  we  have  had  company  most  of  the 
time;  so  that  I  have  done  very  little.  I  am  just 
beginning  to  j)^t  something  together  for  my  lec- 
tures, or  rather  for  my  first  lecture,  at  New  Haven, 
but  find  it  slow  business.  I  work  alone,  and  need 
the  stimulus  of  the  interchange  of  thought. 

The  meeting  at  Rutland  I  enjoyed  greatly.  The 
debt  was  less  than  I  expected,  the  papers  were  ex- 
cellent, and  then  there  was  a  spirit  of  quietness 
and  devotedness  that  seemed  deep  and  earnest,  and 
I  cannot  but  hope  great  good  will  follow.  The 
statements  were  encouraging,  but  my  whole  reliance 
is  on  the  promises.  What  God  has  promised  He  is 
able  to  perform,  and  so  I  hold  myself  steady,  thank- 
ing Him  that  1  may  be  permitted  to  do  anything. 

I  supped  or  rather  dined  last  night  with  Pro- 
fessor Price,  a  regular  Englishman,  and  a  great 
talker.  He  used  the  expression  "A  gone  coon,"  and 
I  asked  him  how  he  came  by  it.  He  said  he  had 
known  it  for  thirty  years,  and  then  I  asked,  "What 
is  a  coon?  Is  it  a  rabbit?  "  "No,  no,"  said  he,  "it 
is  an  opossum."  So  I  found  I  knew  more  than  he 
did  on  one  point,  and  say  again,  "Non  omnes  omnia 


THE  FRIEND.  283 

opossum  —  us  !"     This  morning  he  spoke  an  hour 
to  the  Junior  class,  and  pleased  them. 

New  Britain,  March  27,  1875. 

My  lectures  at  New  Haven  are  over.  Tuesday- 
evening  next  I  am  to  lecture  in  Hartford,  if  I  can 
get  ready,  which  I  am  far  from  being  yet.  After 
that,  perhaps  next  week,  perhaps  the  week  after, 
we  propose  to  go  to  Washington  for  a  visit. 

Of  course  I  went  to  New  Haven  with  no  little 
diffidence,  following  such  great  men,  and  going 
among  such  great  men.  I  endeavored  to  conduct 
myself  properly,  and  to  say  nothing  heretical. 
Judge  of  my  surprise,  then,  when  the  lectures  were 
over,  at  being  informed  that  the  theological  faculty 
wanted  to  see  me.  I  mustered  up  courage  and 
went.  They  were  all  assembled,  Dr.  Bacon  presid- 
ing. It  was  like  going  before  the  Sanhedrim. 
However,  they  asked  me  to  be  seated,  and  you  can 
imagine  my  relief  when  I  was  informed  that  their 
object  in  wishing  to  see  me  was  to  know  whether  I 
would  give  another  course  next  year.  I  am  to  de- 
cide within  a  week.  My  feeling  is  against  it,  but 
perhaps  I  ought.  I  have  no  idea  who  it  is  that 
makes  the  provision  for  the  lectures. 

Williams  College,  July  3,  1875. 

I  have  been  thinking  some  about  my  lectures  on 

"The  Scriptural  Idea  of  God,"  and  have  fallen  into 

inquiries  in  regard  to  the  Absolute  and  Infinite  and 

Unconditioned,   and  find   great  disagreement  and 


284  MARK  HOP  Ely  s. 

confusion  among  writers  about  them.  I  am  sure 
nothing  can  be  clone  for  a  long  time  that  will  bring 
any  uniformity  of  judgment  on  those  subjects,  and 
it  is  discouraging  to  read  and  think.  One  trouble 
is  that  when  men  get  into  the  intuitional  region 
they  differ  about  what  is  known  by  intuition  as 
much  as  they  do  about  anything  else.  I  am  just 
looking  into  Calderwood's  "Philosophy  of  the  In- 
finite," and  see  that  he  holds  to  an  immediate  and 
intuitive  knowledge  of  God  as  a  holy  God,  and 
thinks  that,  if  we  do  not  accept  that,  the  being  of 
God  cannot  be  proved. 

Wlluaivis  College,  August  13, 1875. 

It  is  a  fortnight  to-day  since  I  left  home  to  go 
to  Nahant  to  preach.  I  was  the  guest  of  my  friend 
Amos  A.  Lawrence,  and  had  a  pleasant  time.  The 
congregation  is  not  a  promising  one  to  preach  to, 
but  I  have  had  evidence  in  time  past  that  my  labor 
there  has  not  been  in  vain.  The  day  before  I  was 
there,  two  of  the  nephews  of  Mr.  Lawi'ence,  one  of 
them  the  Episcopal  minister  of  Stockbridge,  started 
in  their  yacht  to  visit  him,  and  on  their  way  saw 
the  sea-serpent,  or  sea-monster,  whatever  it  may 
be,  and  shot  at  it  with  a  rifle  some  twenty  times. 
It  has  been  seen  by  others,  and  in  such  a  way  that 
I  think  we  shall  have  to  accept  the  fact  of  the  ex- 
istence of  some  kind  of  animal  hitherto  unknown, 
perhaps  the  last  of  a  species  now  nearly  extinct. 
He  may  be  to  the  ocean  what  the  last  mammoth  was 
to  the  land.     Monday  I  spent  at  Nahant,  except 


THE  FRIEND.  286 

that  I  went  into  Boston  to  look  up  my  overcoat, 
which  I  left  in  the  hack  in  which  I  crossed  the 
city.  I  wish  all  hackmen  were  as  honest  as  that 
one,  for  he  called  out  to  me  as  soon  as  he  saw 
me  and  restored  the  coat. 

Williams  College,  September  2,  1875. 

I  hasten  to  assure  you  that  I  shall  esteem  it  one 
of  the  great  honors  of  my  life  to  have  my  name  as- 
sociated with  yours  in  such  a  work  as  your  forth- 
cominsr  one  is  to  be.  It  cannot  fail  to  live,  and  to 
be  an  honor  to  the  country  and  to  all  connected 
with  it. 

What  you  say  of  the  connection  between  poetry 
and  philosophy  is  true.  It  is  true  of  the  lighter 
kinds  of  poetry,  but  especially  of  all  that  is  of  a 
high  and  serious  character.  In  fact,  much  of  such 
poetry  is  just  the  flower  of  which  philosophy  is  the 
root.  The  flower  has  the  beauty  and  the  fragrance 
and  is  most  sought,  and  sometimes  I  think  we  might 
as  well  leave  the  roots  of  our  emotions  and  actions 
to  take  care  of  themselves,  but  I  remember  that 
roots  are  more  medicinal,  and  so  continue  to  dig  on. 

Williams  College,  November  9,  1875. 
Who  shall  say  after  this  that  Friday  is  an  un- 
lucky day  ?  Yesterday  afternoon  the  expressman 
came  with  two  boxes,  both  paid  in  full.  One  was 
a  small  paper  box,  the  other  a  large  one  nailed  up, 
and  what  might  be  in  either  I  could  not  conjecture. 
Opening  the  smaller  one  first,   there  was  an  ap- 


286  MABK  HOPKINS. 

pearance  of  solid  gold  in  the  perfectly  gilded  leaves, 
and  within  something  more  precious  than  gold. 
If,  as  Solomon  says,  "a  word  fitly  spoken  is  like 
apples  of  gold  in  pictures  of  silver,"  what  shall  we 
say  of  so  many  words  so  spoken  that  not  one  of 
them  could  be  changed  for  another,  or  changed  in 
place  with  advantage?  The  other  box  was  from 
my  friend  and  classmate  Rice,  of  Cleveland,  and 
contained  a  dozen  bottles  of  Catawba  wine,  the  pure 
juice  of  the  grape,  old,  and  with  a  bouquet  like 
that  of  the  grapes  themselves.  It  was  sent,  to  be 
sure,  more  especially  for  Mrs.  Hopkins's  health, 
but  as  she  has  hitherto  been  averse  to  taking  any- 
thing of  the  kind,  I  hold  myself  ready,  if  need  be, 
to  encourage  her  by  taking  a  little  myself.  If  I 
remember  rightly,  I  encouraged  a  certain  poet  once 
in  the  same  way.  Just  think  of  it  now  —  poetry 
and  wine  in  the  same  day !  was  it  because  poetry 
is  the  wine  of  literature,  and  that  they  had  an  affin- 
ity for  each  other? 

Having  thus  spoken  of  the  boxes  together,  I 
turn  to  the  one  most  precious.  And  here  I  may 
as  well  say  that  the  first  thing  I  looked  at  was  the 
inscription.  I  wanted  to  see  how  my  name  would 
look  embarked  on  its  voyage  to  posterity  between 
such  covers  and  in  such  company.  Was  it  vanity  ? 
If  it  was,  my  vanity  was  gratified.  I  could  not 
have  wished  anything  different.  I  am  particularly 
pleased  with  the  likeness  in  front.  You  have  rea- 
son to  congratulate  yourseK  on  that  because  a  good 
likeness  is  so  seldom  seen.     Of  course  Mrs.  Palmer 


THE  FRIEND.  287 

is  not  satisfied  with  it,  as  what  woman  ever  was 
in  such  a  case,  but  I  hope  she  will  be  resigned 
when  she  thinks  how  much  better  off  she  is  than 
some  others. 

The  poems  I  have  not  had  time  to  look  much 
at  yet,  but  have  read  the  preface  and  the  notes. 
There  are  some  things  in  those  that  needed  to  be 
touched  with  a  delicate  hand,  and  I  think  you  have 
succeeded  perfectly.  Everything  is  in  perfect 
taste. 

How  you  get  time  for  all  you  do,  I  do  not  see, 
and  for  work  so  diversified.  I  have  been  reading 
your  article  on  Longfellow,  and  do  not  see  what 
more  could  be  asked.  I  appreciate  him  more 
through  you  than  I  have  done  before,  but  must 
confess  to  a  higher  estimate  of  Lowell. 

Williams  College,  February  4,  1876. 

Yesterday  was  my  birthday.  I  was  seventy -four 
years  old,  almost  three  quarters  of  a  century.  In 
some  respects  of  my  days  I  can  say  of  them,  as  Ja- 
cob did  of  his,  "few  and  evil,"  but  in  others,  and 
more  generally,  as  David  did,  "  Surely  goodness  and 
mercy  have  followed  me  all  the  days  of  my  life," 
and  oh,  that  I  could  add  with  the  assurance  that 
he  did,  "  and  I  shall  dwell  in  the  house  of  the  Lord 
forever  "  !  It  seems  too  much  for  such  a  creature  as 
I  am,  and  yet  it  is  not  too  much  for  God  to  give. 
My  health  continues  good,  and  I  have  not  as  yet 
missed  a  recitation  since  we  began  last  term.  We 
have  gone  through  with  the  "Outline   Studv,"  and 


288  MARK  HOPKINS. 

"The  Law  of  Love,"  and  I  have  now  taken  up  a 
book  on  Logic  new  to  me,  Jevons.  When  I  get 
through  that  with  the  reviews  and  examinations, 
my  recitations  for  the  year  will  be  over.  Of  course 
we  keep  up  the  Catechism,  and  then  I  preach. 
There  is  more  religious  interest  in  the  college  than 
for  a  lono"  time.  The  meetino^s  are  full  and  ear- 
nest,  and  there  are,  as  we  hope,  some  conversions. 
I  expect  to  preach  to-morrow.  It  would  be  a  great 
mercy  if  we  coidd  see  a  revival  such  as  we  have 
seen  here. 

Of  course  in  connection  with  all  this  my  lec- 
tures get  on  slowly ;  but  I  think  I  may  be  able  to 
prepare  them,  if  not  as  I  wish,  yet  so  that  I  can 
give  them.  I  am  just  now  thinking  about  moral 
attributes,  and  whether  what  are  called  so  are 
properly  attributes  at  all.  Can  anything  that  goes 
to  make  up,  not  characteristics,  but  character,  be 
properly  called  an  attribute?  Whatever  belongs 
to  the  nature  of  God  may  be  an  attribute,  but  I 
suppose  the  character  of  God  does  not  belong  to 
his  nature.  If  it  grew  out  of  it  necessarily,  it 
would  not  be  character.  It  seems  to  me  distinction 
enough  has  not  been  made  between  the  natural  and 
the  moral  attributes.  Dr.  Hodge  says  the  nature 
of  God  is  the  foundation  of  obligation,  and  so  I 
suppose  he  thinks  the  nature  of  God  is  moral. 

I  hope  your  poems  are  continuing  their  sale 
and  migrations,  taking  my  name  over  the  land  in 
connection  with  yours.  It  is  after  all  the  poets  of 
a  country  that  are  the  best  known,  that  is,  in  a 
desirable  way. 


THE  FRIEND.  289 

Williams  College,  March  1,  1870. 

You  are  ri"lit  about  the  nature.  I  do  not  think 
I  ever  meant  to  deny  a  nature  in  such  a  sense  that 
God  would  have  no  natural  attributes.  I  remem- 
ber when  that  whole  thing  came  to  me  as  in  a  mo- 
ment. It  was  when  I  was  giving  the  lectures  in 
Boston.  I  was  at  the  United  States,  and  was  in 
a  puzzle  about  what  is  ultimate  in  obligation  and 
the  reference  of  it  to  the  nature  of  God,  when  it 
came  to  me  that  in  relation  to  the  point  that  then 
troubled  me  God  could  have  no  nature,  and  that  is 
what  I  hold  now.  My  expressions,  I  can  see,  were 
not  g-uarded  as  they  should  have  been.  It  is  diffi- 
cult to  know  how  far  we  are  at  liberty  to  argue 
from  ourselves  to  God.  To  some  extent  we  must. 
It  appears  to  me  now  that  God  must  not  only  so 
have  a  nature  as  to  have  natural  attributes,  but 
also  that  He  must  have  a  moral  nature  as  we  have 
-'—that  is,  a  nature  affirming  obligation.  That 
would  be  a  necessity  to  Him,  as  to  us,  but  He 
would  not  be  under  the  necessity  of  acting,  as  we 
are  not,  according  to  the  affirmation.  If  any  one 
should  say  this  is  making  the  nature  of  God  the 
foundation  of  obligation,  I  reply  it  is  only  making 
a  moral  action  of  any  kind  possible,  and  that  I 
mean  by  the  foundation  of  obligation  that  in  view 
of  which  a  moral  nature  is  called  into  action.  The 
moral  nature,  I  suppose,  acts  by  necessity,*  or  it 
would  not  be  a  nature ;  but  that  so  far  as  a  being 
is  a  person  and  free,  and  so  virtuous  or  vicious, 
he  has  no  nature. 


290  MABK  HOPKINS. 

There !  I  have  written  right  along,  and  cannot  go 
back  to  read  it.  I  hope  it  is  right.  The  lectures 
are  getting  on  so  that  I  think  I  shall  give  them, 
but  they  will  not  be  as  I  could  wish.  The  class  I 
have  still,  and  shall  have  till  the  middle  of  the 
month  or  after,  and  then  I  shall  be  ready  to  go  to 
New  Haven. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  religious  interest  here, 
both  in  the  college  and  in  the  town  —  meetings  full 
and  solemn. 

Boston,  April  10,  1876. 

I  received  your  note  at  New  Haven  last  week, 
just  as  I  was  closing  up  my  lectures,  which  I  did 
Friday,  and  went  the  same  evening  to  New  Britain. 
There  I  spent  the  night,  and  the  next  day  came 
here,  as  1  had  engaged  to  preach  for  Dr.  Webb 
in  the  morning,  and  in  the  Central  Church  in  the 
afternoon. 

So  far  as  I  could  judge,  the  lectures  were  well 
received  by  both  the  Faculty  and  students.  The 
students  sent  me  a  letter,  by  vote  of  the  several 
classes,  expressing  their  interest  in  them  and  their 
desire  that  they,  with  those  of  last  year,  should  be 
published.  Is  it  possible  I  am  to  write  another 
book?     I  should  not  wonder,  but  not  yet. 

I  have  had  a  call,  this  morning,  from  Dr.  War- 
ren, president  of  the  Boston  University,  to  consult 
me  about  coming  to  Boston  and  being  at  the  head 
of  the  post-graduate  department.  It  seems  some 
gentleman  has  agreed  to  give  $1,000  a  year  for  five 
vears  if  I  will  do  it,  and  President  Warren  thinks 


THE  FRIEND.  291 

he  could  get  the  rest  readily.  I  have  declined. 
Some  time  since  they  wrote  me,  desiring  me  to  give 
five  lectures  before  their  theological  students  next 
winter,  saying  President  Woolsey  had  lectured  for 
them,  and  also  Dr.  McCosh.  I  consented,  and  gave 
as  my  subject,  'The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man,'  which 
was  the  title  of  my  lectures  last  year  at  Yale.  It 
did  not  occur  to  me  that  I  should  be  down  in  their 
year  book,  but  I  am,  and  I  see  am  to  lecture  on 
Scriptural  Anthropology. 

Probably  I  shall  be  here  during  the  week,  as 
my  youngest  son  is  to  be  married  here  next  week 
Tuesday.  I  am  appointed  to  write  a  centennial  dis- 
course for  Commencement;  it  is  time  I  was  think- 
ing about  it.     I  wish  I  could  get  down  and  see  you. 

Williams  College,  January  30,  1877. 

I  believe  I  have  not  written  to  you  since  you 
sent  me  your  letter  of  advice.  That  advice  was 
good,  and  I  have  followed  it,  and  always  mean  to. 
It  was  that  I  should  do  just  as  I  had  a  mind  to.  I 
have  always  had  great  respect  for  your  abilities, 
Init  must  confess  it  was  increased  by  that  letter.  I 
do  consider  that  for  a  man  to  say  so  much  and 
yet  say  nothing  is  what  very  few  could  do.  Prob- 
ably I  ought  not  to  have  asked  the  advice.  How- 
ever, as  I  said,  I  took  it,  and  told  Mr.  Treat  I 
wished  he  would  communicate  to  the  committee 
my"  wish  to  withdraw.  He  did  so,  and  they  desired 
him  to  write  me  a  letter,  which  I  have  recently 
received,  expressing  their  unanimous  desire  that  I 


292  MABE  HOPKINS. 

would  let  things  go  on  as  tliey  are.  That  letter  I 
have  not  answered,  but  in  doing  so  I  propose  to 
follow  your  advice. 

We  had  a  pleasant  tune  of  it  in  Boston,  wife 
and  I.  The  Methodists  received  my  orthodox  lec- 
tures without  any  wry  faces.  On  returning  I  took 
up  the  studies  of  the  class  where  we  left  off,  and 
am  now  going  on  with  them.  The  class  are  doing 
well,  and  there  is  a  good  deal  of  religious  interest 
in  the  college.  I  preached  last  Sabbath  on  the 
evidence  for  the  Messiahship  of  Jesus,  his  own 
explicit  testimony  under  oath  to  that  point.  I  do 
not  remember  to  have  seen  the  subject  presented 
as  it  struck  me,  and  am  inclined  to  take  it  up  again 
next  Sabbath. 

And,  by  the  way,  next  Sabbath  will  be  my  sev- 
enty-fifth birthday.  Think  of  that  I  Yes,  and  in 
thinking  of  it,  I  find  I  am  in  a  mistake ;  I  shall  be 
seventy-five  years  old,  and  it  will  be  my  seventy- 
sixth  birthday.  Certainly  I  have  great  reason  to 
bless  God  that  I  am  still  able  to  keep  on  with  my 
work  here  in  the  college,  and  to  preach  abroad  as 
usual.  I  preached  twice  in  the  Central  Church 
when  in  Boston. 

Williams  College,  December  18,  1877. 

You  inquire  in  your  letter,  received  this  morn- 
ing, whether  I  find  the  same  interest  as  formerly 
in  teaching.  I  think  so,  and  account  for  it  partly 
from  the  fact  that  I  teach  this  system,  which  ex- 
pands upon  me,  as  I  study  it  more,  and  evidently 


THE  FRIEND.  293 

becomes  a  power  in  luoukling"  the  whole  mental  life 
of  the  class,  and  often  giving  bent  to  their  moral 
and  religious  life.  It  commends  itself  most  to  the 
best  minds,  and  they  often  express  their  satisfac- 
tion in  the  clearness  of  insight  they  gain.  I  ac- 
count for  it  also  partly  from  the  manner  of  my 
teaching.  Nothing  pleases  me  more  than  to  have 
the  class  ask  questions,  and  so  it  sometimes  hap- 
pens that  we  spend  the  hour  in  what  is  really  con- 
versation, making  no  progress  in  the  book,  and 
the  result  of  that  is  often  most  satisfactory.  I  do 
not  find  that  impertinent  or  captious  questions  are 
asked.  This,  of  course,  causes  the  recitations  to 
be  different  every  year,  according  to  the  minds  to 
be  dealt  with,  and  gives  nearly  as  much  variety  as 
there  would  be  if  it  were  a  new  thing.  It  is  really 
wonderful  how  new  the  study  is  to  most  young  men 
when  they  begin  it.  The  first  term  closes  to-day. 
We  have  been  through  the  "Outline  "  and  through 
the  first  part  of  "The  Law  of  Love."  That  is  cor- 
rect, but  it  seems  as  if  it  might  be  more  simply 
put,  and  I  have  hoped  to  write  an  article  about  it 
for  the  "International,"  and  still  hope  to.  Some 
things  long  in  dispute  have  been  settled,  and  it 
seems  as  if  that,  about  the  proper  adjustment  of 
man's  active  powers  and  his  moral  nature  might 
be. 

Williams  College,  March  6,  1878. 

At  the  same  time  with  this  I  send  the  manu- 
script. If  you  do  not  find  it  convenient  to  look  it 
over,  I  will  not  ask  it ;  but  as  you  have  in  a  sense 


294  MARK    HOPKINS. 

indorsed  what  I  have  said  heretofore,  I  should  be 
glad  of  your  judgment;  and  as  to  what  you  shall 
do  in  case  of  disagreement,  I  will  give  you  carte 
blanche  to  make  alterations.  When  I  wrote  I  sup- 
posed there  would  be  plenty  of  time  to  communicate 
with  you.  I  have  made  some  references  to  places 
in  my  books  where  the  same  subjects  are  treated 
of,  for  I  think  there  are  few  points,  if  any,  in  the 
article  that  I  have  not  decided  the  same  way  in  my 
books,  but  for  the  reasons  mentioned  in  my  former 
letter  they  have  not  been  so  brought  together  as  to 
be  seen  in  their  connection  and  fully  understood.  I 
hope  the  essential  points  are  clearly  as  well  as  con- 
tinuously presented  in  the  article.  I  was  tempted 
to  some  digressions  and  hits,  but  concluded  to  do 
as  I  have  done.  '  If  you  approve,  I  shall  be  sure 
what  the  judgment  of  the  public  wdll  be. 

Williams  College,  March  14,  1878. 

I  am  greatly  obliged  to  you  for  reading  over 
my  article,  and  of  course  am  gratified  by  your 
approval.  If  the  article  had  been  on  an  ordinary 
topic  of  literature,  I  should  not  have  asked  it,  but 
being  on  a  question  that  has  been  discussed  for 
ages,  and  with  the  points  of  which  you  are  proba- 
bly as  familiar  as  any  man  in  the  country,  I  could 
not  but  desire  your  judgment.  Besides,  you  had 
expressed  approval  of  my  views  when  they  were 
less  distinctly  and  consecutively  put,  and  I  wished 
to  know  how  this  presentation  w^ould  commend  it- 
self to  you. 


THE  FRIEND.  295 

As  I  said  in  a  former  letter,  I  have  been  un- 
fortunate in  my  books  from  not  carrying  out  in  the 
Lectures  on  moral  science  my  original  plan ;  which 
v/as  to  connect  with  an  exposition  of  the  constitu- 
tion, that  would  show  the  agreement  of  its  law  with 
the  revealed  law,  a  practical  part.  Then  when  I 
came  to  give  a  practical  part  in  "The  Law  of  Love," 
I  coidd  not  use  my  former  work,  and  so  confined 
myself  mainly  to  the  consideration  of  obligation,  in 
the  theoretical  part.  What  I  should  like  to  do  now 
is  to  substitute  the  substance  of  the  article  you  have 
just  read  for  the  theoretical  part  of  ''The  Law  of 
Love."  That  is  right,  but  it  is  not  a  sufficient  ex- 
position of  the  constitution,  and  besides  is  too  diffi- 
cult for  any  but  the  more  advanced  classes.  When 
the  article  comes  out,  I  may  want  your  opinion  on 
this.  If  that  could  be  done,  it  seems  to  me  it  would 
give  us  a  real  philosoph}^  of  conduct  and  an  unan- 
swerable argument  for  the  Scriptures.  When  the 
article  is  published  I  shall  w.int,  and  suppose  there 
will  be  no  difficulty  in  my  having,  a  dozen  or  so  of 
the  separate  sheets  sent  to  me.  May  I  ask  your 
kind  offices  in  this? 

Williams  College,  April  29,  1878. 

Last  week  I  was  surprised  at  receiving  some 
dozen  pages  of  my  article  in  the  "International," 
with  a  request  that  I  shoidd  send  them  to  editors 
and  others.  I  replied  inquiring  if  there  had  not 
been  a  mistake  in  sending  only  a  part  of  the  arti- 
cle.    This  morning  I  received  a  card  saying  they 


296  MARK  HOPKINS. 

have  divided  the  article  for  want  of  space,  and 
adding  it  will  get  the  advantage  of  two  notices.  I 
have  just  written  them  a  note  complaining  of 
this,  but  of  course  it  will  do  no  good.  It  is  a  kind 
of  thing  that  would  have  vexed  me  a  good  deal  when 
I  was  younger.  So  you  see  that  my  article,  which 
you  were  so  kind,  I  fear  in  your  partiality,  as  to 
say  would  be  the  article  of  the  number,  will  be  no 
article  at  all.  The  article  was  not  over-long,  and 
going  off  at  once  might  have  made  a  respectable 
explosion,  but  divided  I  fear  it  will  be  nothing  but 
two  squibs.  I  think  they  should  have  consulted 
me  before  taking  such  a  course.  They  might  at 
least  have  deferred  the  whole  till  the  next  number, 
to  which  I  should  not  have  objected. 

In  all  that  I  see  written  in  opposition  to  Mill  and 
Harrison,  who  say  that  an  appeal  to  our  own  hap- 
piness is  an  appeal  to  selfishness,  and  that  action 
for  that  is  selfishness,  it  is  taken  for  granted  that 
they  are  right.  That  part  of  my  article  not  to  be 
published  as  yet  takes  another  view  and  would  prob- 
ably be  attacked,  so  the  evil  day  is  put  off.  But 
the  idea  that  men  who  suppose  that  death  is  the  end 
for  them  can  be  brought  up  to  an  altruism  that  will 
lead  them  to  work  for  a  humanity  of  which  they  are 
to  form  no  part  is  ridiculous. 

Have  you  seen  a  notice  of  the  death  of  Mark 
Hopkins  the  millionaire,  of  California?  One  paper 
sent  me  said  he  was  my  son.  He  was  a  distant 
relative,  though  I  never  saw  him.  Another  paper 
said  he  was  sixty  years  old  and  my  granchon. 


THE  FRIEND.  •   297 

Williams  College,  August  2,  1878. 

''What  is  the  use  of  being  a  lazy  man,  if  one  has 
to  have  coals  of  fire  poured  on  his  head?  There  is 
no  standing  that.  When  I  look  at  your  efficiency 
not  only  in  letter  writing,  hut  in  writing  in  all  di- 
rections, I  am  ashamed  of  myself.  However,  you 
are  a  young  man  yet,  and  the  vis  vivida  is  still  in 
full  play.  Your  article  on  Froude  I  read,  and  it  is 
none  too  severe.  My  only  question  is  whether  it 
was  worth  the  notice.  There  is  a  large  amount  of 
that  kind  of  writing  now,  and  will  continue  to  be 
for  some  time.  There  is  a  piece  in  the  last  "Popu- 
lar Science  Monthly,"  by  Lewes,  of  the  same  gen- 
eral tenor,  but  abler  and  yet  showing  great  want  of 
discrimination.  He  undertakes  to  show  the  differ- 
ence between  the  faith  of  science  and  of  theology, 
and  he  knows  nothing  about  it.  It  is  pitiable  to 
find  men  of  rejiutation  blundering  along  m  such  a 
way. 

Williams  College,  December  30,  1878. 
In  losing  the  old  year  now  about  to  depart,  I 
feel  as  if  I  were  losing  a  friend.  The  year  has 
been  a  pleasant  one,  nor  do  I  find  that  as  the  years 
go  on  they  seem  shorter.  That  you  know  is  often 
said.  One  item  of  2:)leasantness  has  been  that  my 
work,  so  far  as  I  can  see,  continues  to  be  accepta- 
ble. I  was  gratified  by  your  commendation  some 
time  ago  of  my  article  on  "Faith."  How  singular 
it  is  that  on  a  point  so  central  there  should  still  be 
so  much  of  indefiniteness,  and  among  our  foremost 
thinkers.     It  seemed  to  me  that  I  made  the  subject 


298  .  MARK  HOPKINS. 

plain.  However,  the  world  has  got  along  toler- 
ably well  without  clear  ideas  on  that  and  a  good 
many  other  points,  and  I  suppose  will  continue 
to  do  so.  And,  by  the  way,  there  is  a  point  of  less 
importance  that  I  should  like  to  consult  you  about 
some  time  when  3^ou  are  dismounted  from  your  Peg- 
asus, and  have  on  your  philosopher's  cap.  It 
respects  the  priority,  in  the  natural  history  of  the 
mind,  of  the  ideas  of  right,  and  of  rights.  It  is 
generally  supposed  that  the  idea  of  right  must,  as 
an  original  and  primitive  idea,  be  first,  but  right 
relates  to  action,  whereas  rights  belong  to  us,  and 
enter  into  our  conception  of  ourselves.  I  have  long 
been  inclined  to  think  that  the  idea  of  rights  is 
first.  Clearly  a  being  possessed  of  no  rights  could 
have  no  idea  of  anything  as  right. 

Washington,  April  9,  1879. 

Perhaps,  my  dear  Dr.  Palmer,  you  would  like 
to  know  our  whereabout  and  what-about.  It  is 
now  two  weeks  since  wife  and  I  came  to  this  capital 
of  our  great  country,  where  we  are  staying  with  our 
married  daughter,  Mrs.  Nott.  I  have  also  a  son 
married  here,  which  adds  to  the  attraction.  The 
city  is  the  centre  of  political  movement,  but  to  me 
is  like  the  centre  of  a  whirlwind,  where  they  say 
there  is  no  movement.  I  hear  less  of  politics  than 
at  home,  and  get  almost  all  political  news  from 
New  York. 

As  to  my  what-about  there  is  little  to  be  said. 
I  am  reading  up  on  the  evidences  of  Christianity, 


THE  FRIEND.  299 

or  rather  on  the  changes  in  them  since  my  book 
was  published,  for  I  have  not  kept  up  with  the 
times  in  that,  and  woukl  now  like  to  add  a  few 
pages,  if  I  can  in  that  way  bring  the  work  down 
to  the  present  time.  The  literature  on  that  subject 
is  extensive.  The  difficulty  is  to  condense  and  give 
it  point  in  a  form  that  will  be  read.  There  are 
many  pleasant  people  here  to  be  seen,  and  numbers 
of  them  call  upon  us.  Last  evening  four  members 
of  the  class  of  1856  came  in  together,  and  for  one 
class  it  was  not  a  bad  representation.  There  was 
Garfield,  the  leader  of  the  House  on  the  Republican 
side;  GilfiUan,  the  treasurer  of  the  United  States; 
Colonel  Rockwell,  of  the  regular  army,  who  is  sta- 
tioned here,  and  has  charge  of  all  the  government 
cemeteries;  and  Newcomb,  who  has  been  a  number 
of  years  at  New  Haven,  but  has  just  been  elected 
to  the  professorship  of  intellectual  and  moral  phi- 
losophy in  the  Free  College  in  New  York.  Two  of 
these  brought  their  wives.  Besides  these  Mr.  Ban- 
croft, now  in  his  eightieth  year,  came  in,  and  also 
Dr.  Peter  Parker  with  his  wife.  Mr.  Bancroft  re- 
tains his  vivacity,  rides  on  horseback  a  good  deal, 
and  works  every  day  so  long  as  to  tire  out  his 
amanuensis.  I  had  previously  dined  with  him  at 
my  son's,  where  I  met  also  Senator  Edmunds  and 
General  Sherman.  I  have  just  been  reading  Sher- 
man's ''Memoirs,"  written  by  himself,  written  as 
he  talks,  and  giving  a  graphic  and  most  interesting 
account  of  the  scenes  he  passed  through  in  Califor- 
nia and  durinij:  the  war,  of  which  last  he  has  s'ood 
reason  to  say  quorum  magna  parsfui. 


300  MARK  HOPKINS. 

Williams  College,  January  1,  1880. 

Here  it  is  —  a  new  year,  a  new  decade,  — 1880. 
That  looks  like  a  great  deal  more  than  1879,  but  I 
do  not  know  that  I  feel  much  older  than  I  did  yes- 
terday. Nor  does  nature  seem  to  be  any  older. 
How  wonderful  that  the  earth  should  have  gone  on 
for  so  long  with  such  perfect  exactness,  and  no  sign 
of  weariness.  How  natural  it  was  for  Esdras  in 
the  Apocrypha  to  say  so  long  ago  that  "the  world 
hath  lost  its  youth  and  the  times  begin  to  wax  old," 
and  then,  "  For  look  how  much  the  world  shall  be 
weaker  through  age,  so  much  the  more  shall  evils 
increase  upon  them  that  dwell  therein."  How 
differently  we  look  at  it  who  see  the  powers  of  na- 
ture just  beginning  to  be  found  out  and  subjected 
to  man.  I  have  just  seen  that  conversation  has 
been  carried  on  at  the  distance  of  tw^o  thousand 
miles  by  means  of  the  telegraph  wires  and  the  tel- 
ephone. I  wonder  what  Esdras  would  have  said  to 
that.  However,  say  what  we  may  about  this 
world,  it  is  plain  that  the  kingdom  of  Christ  must 
consist  mainly  of  those  in  a  condition  wholly  differ- 
ent from  anything  we  now  know  with  our  present 
liabilities  and  limitations.  And  so  we  look  forward 
to  a  new  heaven  and  a  new  earth,  and  so  to  the 
"everlasting:  kins^dom  of  our  Lord  and  Saviour 
Jesus  Christ."  Taking  this  life  by  itself,  I  think 
it  is  "worth  living"  to  some,  but  not  to  all.  To 
you  and  me  it  has  been  by  the  mercy  of  God,  and 
much  more. 


THE  FRIEND.  301 

New  York,  April  20,  1882. 

So  Emerson  is  gone.  I  met  him  several  times, 
but  never  had  much  conversation  with  him.  I  was 
interested  in  his  writings  years  ago  —  bought  one 
volume  of  his  "Essays,"  and  then  another,  but 
opened  to  a  place  in  which  he  spoke  of  Christ  in 
a  manner  so  distasteful,  not  to  say  shocking  to  me, 
that  I  put  up  the  book  and  have  not  read  him  since 
till  just  now.  He  has  insight  and  a  charming 
style.  You  are  enticed  along,  because  you  do  not 
know  what  he  will  say  next.  There  is  no  doubt 
about  the  wide  influence  he  has  exerted  and  will 
exert.  Probably  he  may  be  placed  at  the  head  of 
the  modern  school  of  Christianized  pagans,  who 
are  what  Socrates  might  have  been,  if  he  had  had 
the  light  of  Christ's  teaching  without  accepting 
Him  as  a  Saviour,  or  acknowledging  any  personal 
relation  to  Him. 

Williams  College,  July  17,  1882. 
Since  dropping  you  a  line  from  New  York  on 
our  way  home  from  Washington  we  have  passed 
through  scenes  new  to  us.  Soon  after  reaching 
home  our  little  granddaughter  whom  we  had  with 
us,  a  beautiful  child,  was  taken  sick,  and  after  be- 
tween three  and  four  weeks  of  fever,  with  constant 
watching-  and  visits  of  the  doctor  once  and  twice  a 
day,  she  died.  Almost  immediately  after,  Louisa, 
for  whom  the  child  was  named,  and  who  was  much 
exhausted  by  constant  care,  was  taken  in  much  the 
same  way,  and   with  her  the  fever  ran   a   similar 


302  MARK  HOPKINS. 

course,  medicine  seeming  to  have  no  control  over 
it,  till,  on  the  4th  instant,  about  five  P.  M.,  she 
left  us.  She  was  to  us  all  that  a  daughter  could 
be,  and  it  had  not  occurred  to  me  that  she  could  go 
first.  She  was  perfectly  fitted  to  care  for  us,  if  we 
should  fall  into  that  decrepitude  of  years  which, 
if  we  live,  cannot  be  far  off.  But  we  have  great 
comfort  in  thinking  of  what  she  was,  and  in  the 
assurance  of  her  acceptance  by  Him  whom  she  fol- 
lowed. I  have  known  no  one  who  seemed  to  me  to 
come  nearer  my  conception  of  a  saint.  Coming  as 
her  extreme  sickness  and  death  did,  I  was  unable 
to  take  any  part  in  the  Commencement,  or  to  be 
present  at  the  exercises.  As  you  may  have  seen, 
Dr.  Prime  read  my  discourse  on  President  Gar- 
field. That  has  been  published  in  full  in  some 
papers,  but  is  now  being  printed  as  a  pamphlet, 
and  I  will  send  you  a  copy. 

I  thank  you  for  your  letter.  Since  Louisa's 
death  I  have  reflected  more  on  the  certainty  of  a 
future  state  of  blessedness,  and  the  infinite  value 
of  the  revelations  of  Christianity  respecting  it. 
Without  that  revelation  I  must  confess  I  should  be 
greatly  in  doubt. 

Williams  College,  January  20,  1883. 
How  deeply  I  am  engaged  in  metaphysics  you 
may  jndge,  when  I  tell  you  that  I  am  not  only  pre- 
paring some  lectures  for  metaphysical  Princeton, 
but  that  I  have  this  morning  been  hearing  a  reci- 
tation  in  the   Catechism  on   the  decrees  of  God. 


THE  FRIEND.  303 

My  solution  of  it  was  that  God  decrees  to  do  what- 
ever He  does,  and  to  permit  whatever  He  permits, 
and  that  the  objection  is  not  so  much  to  the  de- 
crees, as  to  what  is  decreed,  and  so  if  any  one 
objects,  it  becomes  a  direct  quarrel  with  God  him- 
self. I  suppose  every  generation  will  find  the  same 
difficulties,  and  come  up  to  the  same  point  on  this 
subject. 

Williams  College,  May  16,  1883. 

As  time  goes  on  I  think  more  of  the  Bible  as 
compared  with  other  books,  and  am  satisfied  that  if 
it  were  read  for  the  purpose  of  spiritual  upbuild- 
ing, it  would  be  its  own  witness.  Is  not  such 
reading  and  study  of  the  Bible  the  great  thing 
the  church  needs? 

Williams  College,  October  24,  1883. 

Once  more  I  am  tied  to  the  college  bell-rope, 
and  fairly  started  in  the  routine  of  recitations,  hav- 
ing one  every  day  and  part  of  the  time  two.  I  find 
myself  interested,  and  the  class  seem  to  be.  They 
are  over  fifty. 

I  sent  you  a  copy  of  the  proceedings  of  the 
American  Board.  I  had  not  seen  any  one,  and 
supposed  there  was  an  understanding  among  the 
members  of  the  board  as  to  my  successor,  as  I  had 
given  the  Prudential  Committee  notice  some  months 
before,  and  as  my  purpose  to  withdraw  was  gener- 
ally known.  Any  such  turn  as  the  matter  took  was 
wholly  unthought  of  by  me,  till  the  chairman  of 
the  nominating  committee.  Dr.  Withrow,  came  to 


304  MABK  HOPKINS. 

me  Wednesday  noon,  sent  as  lie  said  by  the  com- 
mittee. He  said  there  had  been  no  prearrange- 
ment,  and  that  the  members  of  the  committee  were 
not  at  all  agreed,  and  the  committee  were  unani- 
mous in  the  opinion  that  the  best  interests  of  the 
board  would  be  subserved  if  I  would  permit  my 
name  to  be  used.  I  put  the  matter  over  till  the 
next  morning,  and  then  gave  in,  having  in  the 
mean  time  seen  the  secretaries.  Colonel  Hammond, 
and  some  others.  Of  course  I  had  to  explain  and 
defend  myself.  I  have  now  reason  to  think  that 
my  course  is  generally  approved. 

I  did  not  think  the  meeting  as  stimulating  and 
spiritually  uplifting  as  some  others,  but  there  was 
clear  thinking,  principles  were  established,  and 
the  Armenian  difficulty  harmoniously  and,  I  hope, 
permanently  settled.  You  were  there  in  your 
hymns,  as  you  always  are  in  all  such  meetings, 
and  after  all,  though  business  is  the  object,  yet  the 
worship  and  praise  are  the  best  part  of  it. 

So  far  as  I  see,  my  book  is  well  spoken  of. 
One  or  two  of  those  who  have  written  notices  of  it 
I  judge  have  read  it,  but  no  one  has  noticed  those 
distinctions  and  differences  from  others  in  which 
I  think  its  main  value  lies.  However,  those  things 
gradually  work  their  way  into  the  public  mind.  I 
have  just  received  an  original  and  valuable  little 
book  by  Mr.  Rowland  G.  Hazard,  whom  I  suppose 
you  must  have  known  whgn  living  in  Rhode  Island, 
as  the  State  is  so  small.  It  treats  of  similar  topics, 
and  is  especially  strong  on  freedom  and  causation. 


THE  FRIEND.  '305 

My  health  seems  now  as  good  as  before  I  was 
sick,  though  with  some  tendency  to  cough,  and  I 
intend  to  keep  at  work  while  I  am  able,  but  hap- 
pily I  have  nothing  on  hand  that  has  to  l>e  fin- 
ished by  a  specified  time.  What  I  shall  do  just 
next  I  do  not  know.  I  ought  to  do  some  reading. 
We  are  rejoicing  in  the  return  of  Judge  Nott  and 
his  family,  now  with  us.  His  health  is  better. 
Mr.  Denison  also,  whom  CaiTie  married,  is  with  us, 
as  he  preaches  for  the  college,  so  we  have  great  rea- 
son to  be  thankfid  and  wonder  at  the  forbearance 
and  goodness  of  God. 

May  God  be  with  you  and  yours.  My  love  to 
them  all. 

Williams  College,  November  24,  1883. 

Preserved  in  amber  —  that  is  what  I  said  to  my- 
self as  I  found  your  book,  the  illustrated  copy  of 
*'My  Faith  looks  up  to  Thee,"  on  my  return  from 
my  recitation  this  morning.  However,  that  is  not 
the  kind  of  amber  in  which  that  hymn  will  be  pre- 
served. It  will  be  in  the  hearts  and  voices  of 
Christians  till  the  end  of  time,  and  I  congratulate 
you  on  having  done  such  a  work  that  will  thus  "  fol- 
low you." 

I  am  much  pleased  that  you  are  again  elected 
associate  pastor,  and  that  you  are  to  continue  in  a 
work  so  congenial  to  yourself  and  so  profitable  to 
the  church.  I  wish  all  our  churches  could  have 
something  of  the  kind. 

I  see  in  the  "  Congregationalist "  of  this  week  an 


306  MABE  HOPKINS. 

article  of  yours  on  companionship  with  Christ, 
with  which  I  am  much  pleased.  It  is  the  same 
idea  essentially  as  that  I  endeavored  to  present  in 
my  sermon  at  Great  Barrington,  a  copy  of  which 
I  sent  you.  It  seems  to  me  that  what  our  Saviour 
said  on  that  subject  has  been  suffered  to  lie  in  a 
great  measure  unrecognized,  and  that  it  must  come 
up  into  gTeater  prominence,  as  you  know  one  doc- 
trine and  aspect  of  the  Scriptures  does  after  an- 
other, if  the  Christian  life  is  either  to  be,  or  to 
enjoy  what  it  should.  If  those  passages  do  not  in- 
volve mysticism,  as  we  know  they  do  not,  they  must 
involve  what  is  most  quickening  and  precious  in 
the  Christian  life.  I  agree  with  you  entirely  about 
it,  and  hope  you  may  follow  up  the  theme. 

My  health  is  improved,  and  I  keep  at  work,  but 
have  to  be  careful. 

May  the  communion  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ 
be  with  you  more  and  more. 

Williams  College,  May  15,  1584. 

Here  we  are  once  more,  having  come  home  yes- 
terday after  an  absence  of  about  six  weeks,  most 
of  the  time  in  Washington.  Your  good  letter 
reached  me  there,  and  should  have  been  answered, 
but  for  the  most  of  the  time  while  there  I  was  not 
good  for  much.  For  some  years  I  have  had  in  the 
spring  a  cough.  It  took  me  this  year  just  before  I 
left  home.  I  had  been  so  well  during  the  winter 
as  to  attend  all  my  recitations,  not  missing  one,  and, 
so  far  as  I  could  judge,  witli  as  good  acceptance  as 


THE  FRIEND.  307 

heretofore.  At  any  rate,  when  I  understood  that 
the  class  proposed  to  make  me  some  kind  of  a  pres- 
ent, and  I  had  put  a  stop  to  that,  they  wrote  me  a 
letter  expressing  their  thankfulness  for  what  I  had 
done.  But  to  return :  just  before  I  left,  the  cough 
took  me  and  held  on  and  was  wearing  me  down,  but 
within  a  week  or  two  I  got  some  essence  of  pine 
that  came  from  Switzerland,  and  by  taking  it,  as 
put  into  hot  water  and  through  an  inhaler,  have 
so  broken  the  cough  up  that  it  is  almost  gone,  and 
now,  old  as  I  am,  I  am  permitted  to  look  on  this 
beautiful  world  in  its  springtime  with  a  feeling  that  I 
am  not  wholly  out  of  correspondence  with  it.  How 
wonderful  is  its  beauty  I  The  more  I  see  of  it,  and 
the  more  I  reflect  uj^on  it,  the  more  I  appreciate  the 
marvels  of  its  structure. 

I  was  quiet  in  Washington,  did  not  go  once 
either  to  the  House  or  to  the  Senate ;  preached  once, 
made  one  talk  before  a  club,  and  dined  with  some 
of  the  Judges  and  great  men;  though  I  don't  know 
that  I  am  either  wiser  or  better  for  that.  It  was 
pleasant,  however,  and  Washington  is  now  and  is 
to  be  not  only  a  beautiful  city,  but  one  where  the 
amplest  means  of  social  enjoyment  may  be  found. 

Williams  College,  September  8,  1884. 

You  may  have  seen  that  I  have  got  into  poli- 
tics, having  been  nominated  as  an  elector  at  large 
on  the  Blaine  ticket.  It  was  known  that  I  was  in 
favor  of  Blaine,  but  that  was  all.  As  between 
Blaine  and  Cleveland,  and  that  is  the  wav  it  stands, 


308  MARE  HOPKINS. 

I  say  Blaine ;  and  as  between  tlie  Republican  party 
and  the  Democratic  party,  backed  uj)  by  a  solid 
South,  I  say  the  Republican  party.  I  should  have 
preferred  not  to  be  put  in  nomination,  but  do  not 
think  it  wise  to  decline. 

The  number  of  letters  from  which  quotations  are 
given  is  small  in  comparison  with  the  whole  num- 
ber written.  Dr.  Palmer  died  March  29,  1887. 
There  is  a  letter  written  by  him  to  Dr.  Hopkins 
dated  February  16  of  that  year,  from  which  a  few 
sentences  may  well  be  added :  — 

''This  friendly  correspondence  has  been  to  me  of 
great  interest  and  profit.  It  somehow  came  about 
as  natural  growth.  It  has  extended  over  more 
than  a  quarter  of  a  century.  I  cannot  of  course 
hope  that  it  has  added  much  to  you  except  the  labor 
of  writing.  But  to  me  it  has  been  a  material  bless- 
ing intellectually,  socially,  spiritually,  and  in  many 
other  ways.  We  have  had  many  thoughts  and 
sympathies  and  general  lines  of  life  in  common,  and 
have  never  lacked  material  for  letters. 

"I  think  you  are  right  in  relation  to  the  A.  B. 
C.  F.  M.  matter.  I  should  hope  most  for  peace, 
if  the  method  of  reference  by  councils  shall  be 
adopted,  and  think  it  must  come  to  that.  I  feel 
too  near  the  world  of  love  and  peace  to  go  into 
any  eartlily  controversy  now,  and  have  carefully 
avoided  this. 

"I  rejoice  that  your  books  have  gone  into  other 
languages  and  lands.      They  v/ill  be    doing   good 


THE  FRIEND.  309 

when  you  will  be  with  the  glorified.      1  hope  iny 
hymns  will  also/' 

In  a  few  weeks  the  writer  entered  into  the  land 
of  peace,  and  in  June,  less  than  four  months  later, 
was  followed  by  his  friend.  The  friendship  had 
something  beautiful  in  its  length  and  in  the  natural- 
ness of  its  close.  These  aged  saints  who  had  grown 
old  together  were  in  their  deaths  hardly  divided, 
and  perhaps  soon  met  again  in  the  Father's  house. 
The  last  verse  of  Dr.  Palmer's  imperishable  hymn 
that  they  had  sung  together  in  public  worship,  the 
fervent  prayer  that  in  solitude  they  had  often 
offered,  was  graciously  and  abundantly  answered. 

"  Wlaen  ends  life's  transient  dream, 
When  death's  cold  sullen  stream 

Shall  o'er  me  roll ; 

Blest  Saviour !  then  in  love 

Fear  and  distrust  remove  ! 
Oh,  bear  me  safe  above, 

A  ransomed  soul !  " 


THE  THEOLOGIAN. 


God's  Saints  are  (hining  lights  :  who  ftays 

Here  long  must  passe 
O're  dark  hills,  iwnh  ftreames,  and  fteep  ways 

As  fmooth  as  glasse ; 

But  these  all  night 

Like  Candles  ihed 

Their  beams,  and  light 

Us  into  Bed. 

They  are  (indeed)  our  Pillar-fires 

Seen  as  we  go. 
They  are  that  Cities  fliining  fpires 

We  travell  too  ; 

A  fwordlike  gleame  * 

Kept  man  for  fln 

First  Om^  ;  This  beame 

Will  guide  him  /;/." 

Henry  Vaughan,  yoj  of  my  Life. 


CHAPTER  XII. 

THE  THEOLOGIAN. 

Dr.  Hopkins  was  primarily  a  leader  in  educa- 
tion. Yet  he  was  in  the  best  sense  a  religious 
leader,  and  few  men  in  his  generation  in  America 
did  more  effective  service  for  the  Church  of  Christ. 
By  this  it  is  not  meant  simply  that  he  trained  men 
for  service  in  the  ministry  at  home  and  abroad ;  that 
he  gave  inspiration  to  vast  religious  assemblies;  or 
that,  his  unique  powers  remaining  undiminished 
until  all  of  his  contemporaries  had  fallen,  he  be- 
came by  experience  and  wisdom  as  well  as  by  gifts 
a  teacher  of  great  influence ;  but  that  he  left  in  the 
conceptions  of  the  Christian  Church  the  definite  im- 
press of  his  own  thinking.  These  conceptions  were 
wider  and  better,  when  his  work  was  done,  than 
they  would  have  been,  had  he  not  lived.  They 
were  better,  because  they  were  wider,  and  as  the 
greatest  service  of  his  life  was  the  broadening  of 
men's  minds  to  patient  and  candid  thinking,  that 
greatest  service  was  not  confined  to  the  class-room, 
but  was  extended  to  the  religious  teachers  of  the 
age.  He  was  invited  to  become  a  professor  in  dif- 
ferent theological  seminaries,  and  pastor  of  leading 
churches,  but  declined  with  a  wise  perception  of  his 


314  MABK  HOPKINS. 

freedom  and  of  his  larger  influence.  His  position  ' 
as  college  president  was  partly  what  he  made  it, 
but  the  office  in  those  days  was  one  of  intellec- 
tual leadership,  not  of  administrative  sagacity. 
From  that  position  he  could  select  his  themes,  and 
maintain  a  proportion  exactly  expressive  of  his  own 
conceptions.  Had  he  become  a  theological  profes- 
sor, he  would  within  limits  have  done  the  same,  but 
he  had  the  insight  to  know  that  he  could  influence 
religious  thought  more  efficiently,  if  not  identified 
with  any  special  or  professional  school.  He  was  a 
Puritan.  He  was  a  Congregationalist.  He  was 
brought  up  under  the  Congregational  system,  and 
preferred  it  both  for  its  methods  and  its  princij^les. 
Its  methods  put  small  value  on  forms  or  machiner}^ 
and  seemed  to  him  to  conduce  directly  to  the  vital 
and  essential  thing,  namely,  spiritual  growth.  He 
inherited  the  Puritan's  dislike  of  forms  of  worship, 
and  more  particularly  in  his  earlier  life  he  showed 
that  aversion  in  his  sermons,  and  dwelt  upon  the 
danger  of  appeals  to  the  senses  and  of  superstitious 
reliance  on  external  rites.  He  believed  that  sin- 
cerity and  purity  were  of  far  greater  importance  in 
religious  worship  than  anything  else  could  be,  and 
the  emphasis  laid  on  minor  matters  by  certain  de- 
nominations was  not  in  his  judgment  reasonable. 
It  cannot  be  denied  that  tliis  large  way  of  looking 
at  things  which  found  expression  in  all  his  teaching 
and  life  is  in  part  the  explanation  of  the  lofty 
attitude  which  he  took  in  later  times  in  reference 
to  the  discussions  and  agitations  that  invaded  the 


THE  THEOLOGIAN.  315 

Congregational  body.  Singularly  enough  this 
largeness  of  mind  and  constant  attention  to  the 
great  central  ideas  broadened  at  last  both  into 
friendliness  toward  liberal  thought,  and  into  cour- 
teous recognition  of  the  helpfulness  to  many  of  li- 
turgical forms. 

The  ideas  in  Congregationalism  that  appealed 
most  fully  to  his  sympathies  were  the  personal  re- 
lation to  God  which  it  emphasized;  the  supreme 
value  which  it  set  upon  man,  made  in  the  image  of 
God,  and  upon  that  self -directive  power  that  even 
the  strono'est  Calvinists  claimed  to  lodo^e  in  the  hu- 
man  will. 

A  permanent  and  uninterrupted  movement  up- 
ward or  downward  under  a  primary  choice,  but  a 
power  of  choice  absolutely  free ;  man  a  true  cause ; 
God  a  father,  as  well  as  a  lawgiver;  Christ  a 
divine  Redeemer;  assimilation  to  Christ  by  the 
action  of  the  will  under  the  guidance  of  the  Holy 
Spirit;  the  Bible,  the  infallible  rule  of  faith  and 
practice,  —  these  were  the  doctrines  that  were  of 
prime  importance  in  his  thought.  The  great  enforce- 
ment which  he  gave  them  was  from  analogy.  The 
harmony  between  nature  and  revelation ;  the  uni- 
versal reach  of  God's  laws;  the  universal  character 
of  Christianity,  —  these  were  the  themes  the  con- 
stant study  of  which  gave  to  all  his  thinking  a  large- 
ness that  told  strongly  on  the  thought  of  his  time. 
By  as  much  as  he  exalted  the  human  will,  by  so 
much  he  exalted  the  love  of  God  revealed  in  Christ. 
For  him  there  was  no  limitation  in  the  offer  of  sal- 


316  .¥.li?/i  HOPKINS. 

vation.  His  whole  conception  and  presentation  of 
God  was  away  from  the  earlier  New  England  con- 
ception of  arbitrariness  and  pure  sovereignty.  He 
loved  science,  and  was  never  afraid  of  true  science. 

This  is  well  shown  in  the  following  utterance :  — 

"It  is  the  dignity  of  science  that  in  it  we  reach 
and  share  the  thoughts  of  God.  We  may  receive 
them  as  from  a  letter  unauthenticated,  and  so  have 
no  conscious  communion  with  Him;  but  we  can- 
not understand  them  and  have  a  science,  a  know- 
ing, unless  they  are  thoughts,  and  so  proofs  of  an 
intelligent  being  who  thus  expresses  them."^ 

He  was  not  afraid  of  philosophy,  but  gave  his 
whole  life  to  the  teaching  of  philosophy,  and  his 
conception  of  God  as  energizing  reason  in  nature 
was  based  on  these  two  pillars.  The  idea  of  God 
as  redeeming  love  he  found  in  revelation,  and  the 
energizing  reason  of  nature  and  the  love  of  revela- 
tion were  brought  into  harmony  in  his  thought 
and  could  not  be  separated. 

Perha]3s  at  times  he  rested  too  confidently  on  a 
particular  analogy.  But  the  habit  of  looking  for 
analogies  based  on  his  faith  that  God  is  the  author 
both  of  nature  and  of  the  supernatural  gave  a  re- 
markable impressiveness  to  his  conceptions.  In 
one  of  the  last  magazine  articles  that  he  published, 
that  on  "Optimism  "  in  the  "Andover  Review" 
for  March,  1885,  he  goes  back  to  an  analogy  laid 
hold  of  as  early  as  1844,  and  already  referred  to 

^  Sermon  before  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science,  delivered  at  xVlbany,  August  24,  1856. 


THE  THEOLOGIAN.  317 

in  the  account  of  the  lectures  on  ''The  Evidences 
of  Christianity."  "Nothing  so  magnifies  the  law 
of  gravitation  as  its  grasp  on  the  mote,  no  less  per- 
fect than  that  on  tlie  planet ;  and  nothing  so  mag- 
nifies the  law  of  God  as  the  fact  that  no  least  sin 
of  the  most  insignificant  moral  agent  can  escape 
detection,  or  be  pardoned  without  an  atonement." 

The  idea  that  there  may  be  redemption  through 
atonement  in  other  worlds  by  an .  incarnate  Christ 
has  been  a  fancy  of  some.  When  his  mind  rose,  as 
it  did  on  one  occasion,  in  the  meeting  of  the  Amer- 
ican Board  at  Columbus  in  1884,  to  the  thought  of 
moral  life  in  other  worlds,  the  analogy  was  from 
the  perfection  of  different  forms  of  vegetable  and 
animal  life  here  to  the  perfection  of  different  forms 
of  moral  life. 

"It  might  seem  as  if  this  perfection  which  can 
be  wrought  out  in  our  humanity  by  Christianity 
was  but  one  form  of  that  perfection  which  is  to  be 
revealed  in  the  works  of  God  throughout  the  vast 
dominion  of  which  I  have  spoken ;  throughout  that 
vast  system,  that  moral  and  social  system,  which 
corresponds  in  extent  with  that  physical  system 
which  is  revealed ;  and  so  I  think  that  while  there 
shall  be  gathered  at  last  and  preserved,  as  Paul 
says,  a  holy  church,  and  every  man  shall  be  perfect 
and  the  church  shall  be  spotless,  without  spot  or 
blemish  or  any  such  thing,  there  will  be  other 
forms  of  perfection  in  other  departments  of  God's 
universe.  And  when  the  great  day  of  restitution 
of  all  thino's  shall  come  and  God  shall  vindicate  his 


318  MAEK  HOPKINS. 

government,  there  may  be  seen  to  be  coming  in 
from  otlier  departments  of  the  universe  a  long  pro- 
cession of  angelic  forms,  great  white  legions  from 
Sirius,  from  Arcturus,  and  the  chambers  of  the 
South,  gathering  around  the  throne  of  God  and 
that  centre  around  which  the  universe  revolves." 

Here  is  analogy  pushed  by  imagination  to  ex- 
treme limits,  but  with  a  beauty  and  reasonableness 
that  carry  conviction. 

That  the  universe  was  grounded  in  reason  and 
governed  by  reason ;  that  it  was  equally  governed 
by  love  and  regulated  by  love ;  that  love  and  reason 
must  be  the  same  everywhere,  —  these  are  the 
thoughts  which  his  analogies  enforce,  and  these  are 
among  the  thoughts  which  he  helped  to  develop  in 
his  generation. 

In  the  conversation  which  he  had  with  the  Rev. 
Robert  A.  Hume,  the  missionary  to  India,  on  the 
Sunday  previous  to  his  death,  this  same  great  illu- 
mination by  analogy  appears. 

"  Suppose  you  tried  to  show  that  man  is  a  part  of 
a  universal  and  perfect  moral  sj^stem,  while  himself 
out  of  harmony  with  it.  The  Hindus  can  be  made 
to  see  that  the  entire  universe  is  controlled  by  a 
perfect  system,  —  gravitation  and  other  great  laws 
extending  to  every  atom.  Similarly  there  is  doubt- 
less a  perfect  moral  government  reaching  every  part 
of  the  system."  For  the  Hindus  the  great  neces- 
sity is  to  show  the  sinfulness  of  man  and  his  need 
of  redemption.  It  was  to  be  done  by  arguments 
from  the  perfect  harmony  of  the  work  of  ojie  au- 


THE  THEOLOGIAN".  319 

thoi",  and  the  contrast  between  fallen  man  and  the 
perfection  of  nature.  Such  a  use  of  analogy  pass- 
mg  over  into  arguments  for  the  universal  presence 
of  God  had  an  immense  efficiency  in  expelling  the 
old  deistic  conceptions,  and  presenting  God  as 
everywhere  immanent.  But  there  is  not  the 
slightest  loss  of  transcendence,  and  indeed  tran- 
scendence was  one  thing  ardently  contended  for  in 
the  hostility  which  he  evinced  to  evolution.  God 
as  working  for  ends ;  God  revealed  as  working  for 
beneficent  ends;  God  as  uplifting  life  by  conde- 
scension in  nature  and  through  grace,  —  these 
ideas  are  as  renunciatory  of  pantheism  as  of  deism. 
So  his  "faith  is  confidence  in  a  personal  being." 
That  was  his  definition  of  faith  in  1850,  and  prob- 
ably much  earlier,  but  it  is  formally  enunciated 
and  discussed  in  the  baccalaureate  sermon  that 
year.  Faith  was  at  once  the  source  and  the  end  of 
his  religious  teaching.  That  men  should  trust  in 
Christ ;  that  the  personal  relation  to  Him  should  be 
paramount  in  every  system;  that  the  exaltation  of 
that  personal  relation  would  bring  the  right  pro- 
portions into  a  doctrinal  system,  —  these  were  with 
him  controlling  principles.  For  the  true  use  of 
creeds  and  confessions  he  had  great  respect.  But 
the  law  of  the  conditioning  and  the  conditioned  had 
force  in  all  departments  of  thought.  In  his  view 
everything  in  practical  theology  was  conditioned 
on  the  right  idea  of  faith  in  Christ ;  on  the  trust  re- 
posed by  the  individual  soul  in  the  divine  Saviour, 
and  no  creed  that  did  not  explicitly  exhibit  that 


320  MARK  HOPKINS. 

relation  seemed  to  liim  rational  or  clear.  Faith  in 
his  system  did  not  precede  salvation ;  it  is  indeed 
the  means  of  securing  salvation,  but  by  the  act  of 
faith  the  believer  is  saved ;  by  that  act  he  comes 
into  harmony  and  union  with  God,  becomes  the 
son  and  heir  of  God.  There  was  much  that  was 
mysterious  in  God's  plan  of  salvation,  but  nothing 
magical  about  the  way  of  conforming  to  it.  The 
processes  on  the  pai-t  of  God  were  plainly  processes 
of  eternal  reason  and  eternal  love,  and  man's  re- 
sponse to  these  processes  was  wholly  rational. 
The  doctrine  of  ends  was  equally  potent  with  him 
in  theology  and  in  philosophy.  In  the  chart  which 
accompanied  "An  Outline  Study  of  Man"  wor- 
ship is  presented  as  the  highest  outcome  of  man's 
complete  nature.  In  any  chart  that  would  have 
expressed  his  theology,  likeness  and  union  with 
Christ  would  have  been  the  end  of  all  the  powers 
and  activities  of  man  and  the  key  to  the  whole 
system. 

Dr.  Hopkins  was  not  accustomed  to  dwell  much, 
as  do  some  of  the  early  theologians,  notably  Ed- 
wards, on  the  awfid  depravity  of  man.  Least  of 
all  did  he  resort  to  those  descriptions  which  picture 
man  by  the  basest  of  terms  and  the  lowest  of  fig- 
ures. These  were  averse  to  his  mode  of  presenta- 
tion. His  preaching  was  encouraging,  and  hope- 
ful, and  inspiring.  His  students  were  known  in 
the  theological  seminaries  as  "cheerful "  Christians, 
never  as  pessimists,  or  gloomy  thinkers. 

By  this  it  is  not  meant  that  there  was  ever  any 


THE  THEOLOGIAN.  321 

palliation  of  sin  in  his  utterances.  Sin  was  always 
in  his  system  the  abnormal;  the  discordant;  the 
failure  in  the  noblest  being  to  meet  his  end ;  the 
deliberate  and  awful  choice  of  evil ;  "  the  abomi- 
nable thing  "  which  God  hates.  But  man  was  so 
loved  by  God  in  this  fallen  state  that  any  guilty 
creature,  "however  debased  and  wretched,  yea, 
though  he  were  dyed  and  steeped  in  sin,"  coming 
with  confidence  authorized  by  the  death  of  Christ, 
would  be  received  as  the  prodigal  son. 

The  incarnation  expressed  God's  thought  of  the 
value  of  man,  and  the  atonement  was  the  wonder- 
ful divine  way  of  purifying  those  whom  God  could 
not  let  go,  and  winning  back  the  wanderers  to  the 
Father's  house.  That  sons  of  God,  those  brought 
by  eternal  love  once  more  into  sonship,  should  have 
a  view  of  sin  that  increasingly  emphasized  its  sinful- 
ness was  reasonable,  but  that  they,  the  sons  of  God, 
should  speak  of  themselves,  or  be  described,  as  once 
"worms,"  or  "swine,"  or  "vipers,"  was  not  in  his 
style.  Perhaps,  however,  aversion  to  these  epi- 
thets common  in  certain  older  writers  was  founded 
quite  as  much  on  their  inadequacy  to  express  man's 
degradation  as  on  the  loftiness  of  his  origin.  But 
the  degradation  implied  the  loftiness.  In  a  re- 
markable passage  in  "The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man," 
he  says:  "In  that  prerogative  of  man  by  which  he 
can  either  accept  or  reject  ths  law  of  his  being, 
he  differs  wholly  from  any  mere  animal.  No  ani- 
mal can  approximate  anything  of  the  kind .  It  lies 
in  a  region  and  sphere  of  which  it  knows  nothing. 


822  MAtiK  HOPKINS. 

We  have  here  indeed  a  fundamental,  perhaps  the 
most  fundamental,  difference  between  man  and  the 
brute.  By  accepting  the  law  of  his  being,  man  is 
capable  of  rising  to  a  height  of  knowledge,  of  good- 
ness, of  dominion,  which  shows  that  in  him  which 
must  be  wholly  different  in  its  origin  from  any- 
thing in  the  brute.  Also,  by  rebelling  against  God 
and  rejecting  the  law  of  his  being,  he  is  capable  of 
sinking  to  a  degradation  so  far  below  the  brute  as 
to  show  equally  that  they  could  not  have  had  a 
common  origin.  No  brute  is  any  more  capable  of 
rebelling  against  God  than  of  serving  Him;  is 
any  more  capable  of  sinking  below  the  level  of 
its  own  nature  than  of  rising  to  the  level  of  the 
nature  of  man.  No  brute  can  be  either  a  fool  or 
a  fiend.  ^ 

Election  did  not  mean  for  him  the  arbitrary 
choosing  of  "worms  to  be  sons;"  it  meant  the 
acceptance  by  God  of  a  being  made  in  his  image 
on  the  ground  of  trust  in.  the  divine  Son,  and  the 
foreknowledge  that  certain  persons  would  exercise 
that  trust. 

It  was  a  result  of  Dr.  Hopkins's  constant  study 
of  man's  physical,  intellectual,  and  moral  nature 
and  of  his  strong  dependence  on  analogy  that  spirit- 
ual activities  and  processes  were  not  for  him  so 
greatly  differentiated  in  method  from  other  pro- 
cesses as  many  theologians  had  made  them.  This 
is  plainly  seen  in  the  following  paragraph  from 
''The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man :  "  — 

^   The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man,  Lecture  YI.  p.  124. 


THE  THEOLOGIAN.  323 

"And  here  in  the  way  that  sin  and  corruption 
come  into  the  spiritual  reahn  we  find  one  of  those 
analogies  to  what  takes  place  in  the  lower  foiTns  of 
being  that  show  the  unity  of  the  system  through- 
out. All  disintegration  and  corruption  of  matter  is 
from  the  domination  of  a  lower  over  a  higher  law. 
Tlie  body  begins  to  return  to  its  original  elements 
as  the  lower  chemical  and  physical  forces  begin  to 
gain  ascendency  over  the  higher  force  of  life.  In 
the  same  way  all  sin  and  corruption  in  man  is  from 
his  yielding  to  a  lower  law  or  principle  of  action  in 
opposition  to  the  demands  of  one  that  is  higher."  ^ 

The  profound  elations  and  depressions  of  a  spir- 
itual experience,  the  agonies  of  conviction,  the 
transports  of  conversion,  that  marked  the  early 
biographies  of  New  England  saints  were  far  more 
consonant  with  his  brother's  ideas  than  with  his. 
He  admitted  fully  the  reality  of  these  extremes, 
and  the  diversities  of  operation  by  the  same  Spirit, 
but  the  whole  influence  of  his  teaching  and  preach- 
ing was  to  a  calmer,  more  equable,  less  emotional 
acceptance  and  following  of  Christ.  Rarely  had 
any  college  the  two  types  of  religious  experience, 
the  fervent  emotional  and  the  calm  philosophical, 
at  the  same  time  more  happily  illustrated  in  its 
teachers  than  in  these  two  brothers.  The  influence 
of  Dr.  Hopkins's  simple  conception  and  presenta- 
tion of  faith  helped  largely  to  a  removal  of  the  feel- 
ing in  the  churches  that  these  violent  experiences 
were  essential  or  even  desirable  in  religious  life. 

1  The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man.  Lecture  VI.  p.  123. 


324  MARK  HOPKINS. 

His  preaching  was  always  so  reasonable ;  every  step 
urged  was  so  clearly  sliown  to  be  fit  for  a  reason- 
able being  to  take ;  his  pleadings  were  so  cool  and 
calm,  and  his  exposition  of  God's  relations  to  men 
were  so  dispassionate  and  lucid,  that  the  whole 
ejffect  was  to  give  tone  to  the  reason  and  will,  and 
lead  to  a  manly  consecration,  rather  than  to  a  deep 
prostration. 

An  impression  prevailed  in  certain  quarters, 
where  the  doctrine  of  right  advocated  by  him  was 
not  fully  grasped,  that  this  theory  was  the  source 
of  the  doctrine  that  before  a  human  being  could  be 
finally  condemned  of  God,  Christ  must  have  been 
preached  to  him.  That  the  doctrine  that  right  is 
right,  not  simply  because  it  is  right,  but  because 
doing  right  will  promote  the  happiness  of  all  beings, 
the  doer  included,  should  be  used  as  a  standard  to 
determine  what  the  infinite  God  will  do  with  cer- 
tain classes  of  men  does  not  seem  reasonable.  Dr. 
Hopkins  believed  that  God  would  do  and  does  all 
that  infinite  reason  and  infinite  love  can  do  to  win 
men  back  to  liimseK.  But  because  he  believed 
this,  and  further  that  God  has  made  it  plain  in  the 
constitution  of  things  that  he  who  chooses  as  a 
supreme  end  the  blessedness,  the  well-being  of  all 
beings  will  do  right,  and  that  right  action  is  right 
because  it  conduces  to  that  end,  it  is  certainly  a 
strange  inference  that  his  teaching  was  preparatory 
for  the  introduction  into  the  thought  of  this  age  of 
that  peculiar,  but  old  doctrine  that  the  heathen  will 
not  be  condemned  until  they  have  heard  the  gospel 


THE  TIIEOLOUIAN.  325 

of  Christ ;  and  that  if  they  have  not  heard  it  in 
this  woild,  they  must  in  the  next. 

The  oahn,  restrained  reply  to  the  illogical  at- 
tack made  in  the  ])ages  of  a  review  was  presented 
in  a  later  number  of  the  same  periodical  in  an  ar- 
ticle on  "The  Place  of  the  Sensibility  in  Morals."  ^ 
This  may  well  be  noted  as  a  masterpiece  of  dispas- 
sionate, temperate  statement,  and  it  must  not  be 
forgotten  that  he  had  attained  his  eighty-fifth  year 
when  it  was  written. 

Dr.  Plopkins's  mind  was  an  open  one.  The 
movement  in  the  direction  of  breadth  and  charity 
was  very  plain  the  latter  part  of  his  life,  and  made 
his  old  age  beautiful ;  and  during  his  entire  life  he 
held  himself  ready  to  change  any  view,  if  new  light 
seemed  to  make  a  change  reasonable.  That  was 
seen  in  other  matters  besides  his  abandonment  of 
the  doctrine  that  right  is  ultimate. 

The  statement  of  Leibnitz  that  this  is  "the  best 
possible  system,"  once  held  by  him,  was  at  last 
wholly  abandoned,  as  is  plain  from  the  article  on 
"Optimism  "  already  mentioned.  A  colloquy  once 
took  place  in  his  class-room  which  brought  out 
objections  to  that  statement  by  Leibnitz  in  a  strik- 
ing way.  Dr.  Hopkins  asked  a  bright  student  ^ 
if  he  did  not  believe  that  "this  is  the  best  possible 
system."  The  student  replied  that  he  did  not. 
Thereupon  the  president  said:  "Will  you  please 

^  Homiletical  lieview,  February,  1887. 

-  James  H.  Canfield,  of  the  class  of  1868,  now  Chancellor  of  the 
University  of  Nebraska. 


326  MAEK  HOPKINS. 

tell  us  in  what  resiDects  you  could  improve  upon 
this  system ?  "  "  Certainly,"  was  the  prompt  reply ; 
"  I  would  kill  off  all  the  bedbugs,  mosquitoes,  and 
fleas,  and  make  oranges  and  bananas  grow  farther 
north."  If  the  answer  seems  a  little  pungent,  we 
have  this  assurance,  that  only  a  student  who  had 
been  thinking  earnestly  on  the  subjects  under  dis- 
cussion would  have  made  such  a  repl3^  It  was  a 
far  more  honorable  answer  to  the  teacher  than  a 
blind  affirmation  woukl  have  been,  and  was  doubt- 
less regarded  by  Dr.  Hopkins  himself  as  an  indi- 
cation that  his  teaching  was  not  in  vain.  I  remem- 
ber distinctly  that  at  the  alumni  dinner  the  next 
summer  he  spoke  most  complimentarily  of  the  ora- 
tion just  delivered  on  the  Commencement  stage  by 
the  keen  pupil  who  made  this  retort. 

He  made  a  good  deal  of  tlie  argument  from  mir- 
acles in  the  lectures  on  "The  Evidences  of  Chris- 
tianity," and  never  ceased  to  regard  the  miracles 
as  a  substantial  and  authoritative  support  to  the 
claims  of  Christ.  In  the  article  on  "Optimism," 
one  of  the  ripest  and  maturest  of  his  discussions, 
he  indicates  a  change  in  the  proportionate  weight 
which  he  gave  them. 

"As  compared  with  the  conception  of  a  sinless 
man  as  essential  to  a  religious  system,  and  with  the 
presentation  of  it  in  real  life  in  its  vicissitudes  and 
vmder  its  extremest  forms  of  trial,  the  wonder  of 
miracles  is  as  nothing.  Miracles  were  needed  in 
the  beginning  as  evidences.  They  are  needed  still, 
but  they  will  be  less  needed  as  the  world  moves 


THE  THEOLOGIAN.  327 

on,  and  the  sinless  charaeter  of  Christ  shall  take  its 
place  and  shine  with  proper  effulgence  in  the 
Christian  system." 

At  the  same  time  it  must  not  be  overlooked  that 
there  was  a  foresightedness  and  an  almost  prophetic 
element  in  his  mind  that  early  seized  the  points 
likeliest  to  be  of  weight  in  progress.  For  this 
reason  the  changes  in  his  position  were  few.  For 
this  reason  we  find  in  his  last  and  matured  utter- 
ances points  of  living  contact  with  the  earliest. 
For  this  reason,  also,  in  some  things  he  was  in  ad- 
vance of  liis  age.  He  was,  I  believe,  the  first  in 
this  country  to  make  the  study  of  anatomy  and 
physiology  the  foundation  for  the  study  of  mind 
and  morals,  and  was  thus  the  pioneer  in  the  direc- 
tion of  "Physiological  Psychology,"  which  has  of 
late  years  taken  on  such  large  expansion.  Indeed 
the  ablest  exponent  ^  of  the  new  psychology  in  this 
country  does  not  exclude,  but  rather  pi'esents  Dr. 
Hopkins's  conceptions  as  expressive  of  the  aims  of 
the  new  method  when  he  writes :  — 

'*  The  new  psychology  which  brings  simply  a  new 
method  and  a  new  standpoint  to  philosophy  is,  I 
believe,  Christian  to  its  root  and  centre;  and  its 
final  mission  in  the  world  is  not  merely  to  trace 
petty  harmonies  and  small  adjustments  between 
science  aiid  religion,  but  to  flood  and  transfuse  the 
new  and  vaster  conceptions  of  the  universe  and  of 
man's  place  in  it  —  now  slowdy  taking  form  and  giv- 

^  President  G.  Stanley  Hall,  of  Clark  University-  Worcester, 
Majss. 


328  MARK  HOFEIXS. 

ing  to  reason  a  new  cosmos  and  involving  momen- 
tous and  far-reaching  practical  and  social  conse- 
quences —  with  the  old  Scriptural  sense  of  unity, 
rationality,  and  love  beneath  and  above  all  with  all 
its  wide  consequences."  ^  While  the  pupil  would 
not  here  claim  for  his  master  that  he  was  conver- 
sant with  the  methods  or  results  of  the  latest  physi- 
ological investigations,  he  certainly  includes  him 
among  the  "new"  philosophers.  He  could  not 
more  accurately  describe  Dr.  Hopkins's  thought  of 
the  mission  of  psychology  than  in  these  words.  He 
could  not  more  perfectly  picture  the  scope  and  in- 
fluence of  his  teaching. 

He  stood  always  for  unity,  for  reason,  for  love 
in  his  philosophy  and  his  theology.  The  laws  of 
the  conditioning  and  the  conditioned  meant  unity 
and  reason,  aiid  as  there  was  no  high  end  without 
sensibility,  love  pervaded  the  entire  system.  The 
end  in  morals  was  the  love  of  man  and  the  love  of 
God.  The  end  in  theology  was  the  same  made 
attainable  by  faith  in  Christ. 

It  is  noteworthy  that,  while  his  first  book  was  on 
"The  Evidences  of  Christianity,"  the  last  lecture  in 
the  last  book,  "The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man,"  treats 
almost  wholly  of  "The  Man,  Christ  Jesus."  The 
Christocentric  trend  of  modern  theology  in  New 
England  and  America  was  promoted  by  his  utter- 
ances. It  would  be  hard  to  find  a  more  marked  in- 
stance of  uniformity  of  exaltation  of  Christ  in  all 
the  thought  of  a  thinker.  From  the  beginning  to 
^  Andover  Eeview,  March,  1885. 


THE   THEOLOaiAX.  329 

the  end  of  his  career  Christ  was  the  '^Suii  of 
Righteousness."  He  regarded  Him  as  the  source 
of  all  redemption  and  inspiring  power  from  the  first. 
His  conceptions  of  Him  were  enlarged,  as  were  his 
conceptions  of  creation,  but  the  authority  of  his 
person  and  the  grandeur  of  his  claims  and  mission 
always  had  the  relative  importance  which  the  last 
developments  in  all  theology  assign  them. 

Dr.  Samuel  Hopkins,  his  great-uncle,  defined 
faith  as  "an  understanding  cordial  receiving  the 
divine  testimony  concerning  Jesus  Christ  and  the 
way  of  salvation  by  Him  in  which  the  heart  accords 
and  conforms  to  the  gospel." 

The  great  nephew  defined  it  as  "confidence  in  a 
personal  being."  This  simplicity  and  directness  of 
the  relation  to  Christ,  the  introduction  of  this  con- 
ception as  the  mainspring  of  all  doctrinal  state- 
ments and  movements,  was  the  great  contribution 
of  his  life  to  the  thought  of  the  churches.  It  was 
a  contribution  that  involved  many  lesser  gifts,  as, 
for  instance,  more  rational  views  of  inspiration, 
and  a  clearer  understanding  of  the  Bible.  The 
whole  thought  and  activity  of  the  churches  is  now 
quickened  and  harmonized  by  this  central  and 
guiding  conception,  which  others  indeed  before  him 
had  dimly  perceived,  but  which  he  helped  to  make 
the  luminous  centre  of  modern  theology. 


THE  CLOSING  YEAES, 


■  What  wouldst  thou  have  a  good  great  man  obtain  ? 
Wealth,  title,  dignity,  a  golden  chain, 
Or  heap  of  corses  which  his  sword  hath  slain  ? 
Goodness  and  greatness  are  not  means,  but  ends. 
Hath  he  not  always  treasures,  always  friends. 
The  good  great  man  ?     Three  treasures  —  love,  and  light, 
And  calm  thoughts,  equable  as  infant's  breath  ; 
And  three  fast  friends,  more  sure  than  day  or  night  — 
Himself,  his  Maker,  and  the  angel  Death." 

Coleridge,  The  Good  Great  Man. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

THE    CLOSING    YEARS. 

In  1880  Dr.  Hopkins  was  much  delighted  with 
the  nomination  of  General  Garfield,  who  had  been 
one  of  his  pupils,  for  the  office  of  President  of  the 
United  States.  Garfield's  entrance  of  Williams 
College  had  been  determined  by  a  kindly  letter 
and  promise  of  help  received  from  Dr.  Hojikins  in 
reply  to  an  appeal  made  when  he  was  considering 
the  means  of  securing  a  college  education.  From 
the  first  the  relation  was  one  of  cordial  and  recip- 
rocal esteem,  which  deepened  in  later  years  into  rev- 
erence on  Garfield's  part  for  his  great  teacher,  and 
admiration  on  the  teacher's  part  for  the  brilliant 
development  of  power  in  the  pupil  and  the  steady 
promotion  which  accompanied  the  development. 

In  Garfield's  volumes  of  correspondence  are 
carefully  preserved  letters  from  Dr.  Hopkins  which 
were  written  at  various  points  of  advancement  in 
Garfield's  career.  The  letter  of  congratulation  on 
the  nomination  to  the  presidency  is  worthy  of  the 
relation  between  these  distinguished  men,  and  ex- 
presses in  the  frankest  and  yet  most  tender  way 
the  joy  that  a  true  teacher  will  feel  in  the  success 
of  a  beloved  pupil,  —  a  success  won,  in  this  case, 
against  immense  odds. 


334  MABK  HOPKINS. 

Williams  College,  June  10,  1880. 

My  deak  General,  —  Has  the  time  of  telegrams  so 
passed  that  you  can  read  a  letter  ? 

The  hour  has  struck  sooner  than  I  thought.  You 
know  I  thought  it  would  come,  and  now  that  it  has 
come  I  rejoice  with  you.  I  congratulate  you,  not  only 
on  your  nomination,  but  on  the  manner  of  it,  and  the 
enthusiasm  with  which  it  is  received.  The  students 
here  are  wild  over  it,  and  I  care  not  how  wild,  if  they 
will  but  learn  the  lesson  there  is  in  it. 

It  is  one  reason  of  my  joy  that  there  is  a  lesson  in 
it.  How  well  I  remember  those  early  struggles  and 
your  manly  bearing  under  them,  the  confidence  you  at 
once  gave  your  instructors  and  received  from  them,  and 
the  combination,  so  apparently  easy,  and  yet  so  rare 
among  students,  of  a  genial  spirit  with  pure  habits  and 
high  aims  uniformly  pursued.  That  was  the  beginning 
of  a  course  in  which  you  have  not  faltered,  and  the 
lesson  therefore  is,  that  this  honor  is  the  result  of  no 
accident,  but  of  achievement  by  steady  work  in  scholar- 
ship and  statesmanship,  so  that  when  the  occasion  called, 
the  man  was  there.  In  this  view  of  it  I  regard  the 
nomination  as  an  honor  to  the  country  and  its  institu- 
tions, no  less  than  to  yourself,  and  if  the  American 
people  shall  ratify  it,  as  I  believe  they  will,  I  am  confi- 
dent we  shall  have  an  administration  that  will  not  suffer 
in  comparison  with  any  that  has  gone  before  it. 

My  dear  General,  I  shake  hands  with  you,  and  beg 
you  to  convey  my  congratulations  to  Mrs.  Garfield  and 
to  your  honored  mother. 

When  the  campaign  ended,  and  the  jnipil  was 
elected  to  the  highest  office  in  the  gift  of  the  peo- 


THE  CLOSING   YEARS.  335 

pie,  the  teacher,  recalling  anew  all  the  struggles  of 
the  life  that  had  been  thus  crowned,  had  great 
cause  for  thankfulness  that  he  had  been  permitted 
to  help  make  those  struggles  easier,  and  to  add 
something  by  his  instruction  to  the  intellectual  and 
moral  power  of  the  man.  No  one  could  have 
greater  joy  in  the  honor  that  had  come  to  the  once 
poor  and  anxious  student,  now  the  President-elect 
of  the  gi-eat  republic,  than  Dr.  Hopkins.  His 
brief  letter  of  congratulation  expresses  this  joy. 

Williams  College,  November  3,  1880. 

My  dear  General,  —  The  news  of  the  morning 
brings  us  joy.  Yoit  are  elected  President  of  these 
United  States  by  a  majority  that  cannot  he  questioned. 
Thanks  be  to  God  for  the  security  and  prosperity  which 
this  promises  to  the  whole  country. 

You  knov7,  that  outside  of  your  own  family  no  one 
rejoices  more  in  this,  your  success,  than  I  do.  May  God 
be  with  you. 

Please  present  my  best  congratulations  to  Mrs.  Gar- 
field and  your  honored  mother. 

Dr.  Hopkins  was  in  Washington  at  the  time  of 
the  inauguration,  a  guest  of  his  son-in-law,  Judge 
Nott,  of  the  Court  of  Claims.  A  meeting  of  the 
graduates  of  the  college  with  their  brother  alum- 
nus, the  newly  inaugurated  President,  and  with  Dr. 
Hopkins,  was  arranged  by  Colonel  A.  F.  Eoek- 
well,  a  classmate  and  intimate  friend  of  Garfield. 
The  following  account  of  that  meeting  had  its  ori- 
gin in  the  thoughtful  kindness,  and  is  given  in  the 
words,  of  Colonel  Rockwell.     The  meeting  took 


336  MARK  HOPKINS. 

place  on  the  afternoon  of  tlie  inauguration  day, 
March  4,  1881. 

"About  four  o'clock,  the  alumni  with  Dr.  Hop- 
kins were  present  in  the  Executive  Mansion, 
awaiting  the  President.  As  soon  as  he  was  noti- 
fied, leaving  behind  the  crowds  who  were  pressing 
for  his  attention,  attended  by  Mrs.  Garfield,  Mrs. 
Rockwell,  and  myself,  the  President  proceeded  at 
once  to  the  East  Room.  On  entering,  he  found 
the  company  of  a  hundred  or  more  arranged  in  a 
semicircle.  Approaching,  he  arrested  his  steps, 
and,  crossing  his  hands  before  him,  stopped  about 
ten  feet  away,  facing  the  Doctor.  After  a  moment 
of  silence.  Dr.  Hopkins  began  the  remarkable  ad- 
dress, a  faithful  copy  of  which  I  have  the  pleasure 
of  inclosing.  The  emotion  of  the  company  was 
apparent,  and,  at  the  moment  when  'that  venerable 
and  venerated  man,'  with  outstretched  hands,  'in- 
voked the  blessing  of  Him  who  has  led  you  hith- 
erto,' the  scene  was  impressive  beyond  description. 

"The  President  then  began  his  reply,  which,  as 
nearly  as  I  remember,  occupied  about  the  same 
time  as  the  Doctor's  address.  It  is  always  to  be 
regretted  that,  in  the  hurry  and  confusion  of  those 
times,  the  services  of  a  stenographer  were  over- 
looked. To  make  amends  I  spared  no  entreaties 
to  elicit  from  the  eminent  men,  whose  relations  on 
this  day  were  so  unique  and  beautiful,  the  repro- 
duction by  themselves  of  their  words. 

"  I  was  more  successful  in  the  one  case,  but  (mly 
partly  so  in   the  other;  for   the  two  precious  half 


THE  CLOSING    YEARS.-  337 

sheets  in  1113^  possession,  containing  the  beautiful 
and  touching  exordium  only  of  President  Garfield's 
address,  were  all  that  my  most  strenuous  efforts 
could  obtain. 

"How  far,  at  this  late  da}^  the  recollections  of 
those  present  might  avail  in  reproducing  the  re- 
mainder of  the  President's  address  is  a  matter  for 
conjecture." 

The  following  are  Dr.  Hopkins's  words:  — 

"President  Garfield,  — The  alumni  of  Wil- 
liams College  here  gathered,  esteem  it  an  honor  that 
they  are  permitted  to  be  the  first  to  congratulate 
you  in  this  house,  now  to  be  your  home,  on  your 
accession  this  day  to  your  great  office  as  President 
of  the  United  States ;  and  they  have  deputed  me 
to  say  a  few  words  in  their  behalf. 

"But,  before  doing  this,  I  must  be  permitted 
to  greet  and  congratulate  you  personally  and  on  my 
own  behalf.  This  I  venture  to  do,  if  for  no  other 
reason,  because  I  have  been  told,  and  I  suppose 
truly,  that  I  am  the  only  president  of  a  college  who 
has  lived  to  see  one,  who  graduated  during  his  ad- 
ministration, attain  to  this  high  honor.  This  I  am 
now  permitted  to  see,  and  for  it  I  give  thanks  to 
God.  In  this,  with  the  exception  of  your  honored 
mother  and  immediate  family,  there  is  no  one  who 
rejoices  more  than  I  do,  and  from  the  bottom  of  my 
heart  I  congratulate  you. 

"  Having  thus  ventured  to  say  a  word  for  myself, 
I  now  speak  for  the  alumni. 

"Since  your  graduation,  sir,  twenty-four  years 


338  MARK  HOPKINS. 

ago,  your  course  has  been  conspicuous,  and  we  have 
watched  it  with  deep  interest.  We  have  seen  you 
passing  on  and  up  without  defeat,  until,  by  no  po- 
litical manoeuvring,  but  by  high  statesmanship  and 
continuous  public  service  in  the  face  of  the  Ameri- 
can people,  you  have  attained  one  of  the  highest 
positions  this  world  has  to  give,  —  the  presidency 
of  the  grandest  republic  hitherto  known. 

"Well  then,  sir,  may  we  congratulate  you,  and 
I  do  it  in  the  name  of  those  who  hold  or  have  held 
high  positions  under  the  government,  in  the  name 
of  those  prominent  in  the  several  States  from  which 
they  come,  in  the  name  of  your  classmates  of  whom 
so  many  are  present,  in  the  name  of  all  present,  I 
congratulate  you,  and  assure  you  that  we  feel  hon- 
ored in  your  honor. 

"And  not  in  the  name  of  these  alone  do  I  con- 
gratulate you,  but  in  the  name  of  the  college,  its 
trustees,  and  its  alumni,  wherever  they  may  be. 
Standing  as  I  do  among  the  oldest  of  these 
alumni,  and  having  taught  so  many  of  them,  I  feel 
authorized  to  speak  for  them.  I  know  that  they 
also  feel  honored  in  your  honor,  and  that,  as  a 
body,  they  will  be  strongly  in  sympathy  with  you 
in  your  administration. 

"To  that  administration  we  look  forward  with 
confidence.  In  view  of  its  vast  responsibilities  and 
grand  opportunities,  we  invoke  upon  you  the  bless- 
ing of  Him  who  has  led  you  hitherto ;  and  we  trust 
that  in  connection  with  it  there  will  come  to  your- 
self still  higher  honor,  and  to  the  whole  of  this 


THE  CLOSING    YEARS.  339 

vast  country,  East,  West,  North,  and  South,  alike, 
gTeater  prosperity  than  it  has  hitherto  known." 

In  the  reply  which  President  Garfield  made,  it 
has  been  related  by  those  who  were  present,  was 
the  distinct  assertion  that  Dr.  Hopkins  was  more 
truly  President  than  he.  Colonel  Rockwell's  mem- 
orandum gives  the  few  words  which  he  secured  from 
the  distinguished  statesman,  and  these  breathe  the 
spirit  of  this  statement. 

"I  am  deeply  grateful  to  you,  and  to  the 
alumni  of  Williams  College  here  assembled,  for 
this  cordial  greeting. 

"It  will  give  me  new  strength  for  the  duties  of 
this  i^lace  to  know  that  I  am  welcomed  and  sup- 
ported by  this  great  company  of  educated  men, 
whose  lives  illustrate  and  honor  so  many  profes- 
sions, and  such  wide  fields  of  useful  activity. 

''It  is  especially  gratifying  to  me  that  your 
greetings  have  been  delivered  by  that  venerable  and 
venerated  man,  who  was  in  our  college  days  and 
will  always  be  okv  President. 

"I  hope  he  will  pardon  me  for  a  more  personal 
reference.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century  Dr.  Hop- 
kins has  seemed  to  me  a  man  a23art  from  other  men, 
—  standing  on  a  mountain  peak,  —  embodying  in 
himself  much  of  the  majesty  of  earth,  and  reflect- 
ing in  his  life  something  of  the  sunlight  and  glory 
of  Heaven.     His  presence  here  is  a  benediction  "  — 

It  was  arranged  that  at  the  inauguration  of 
Franklin  Carter  on  July  6,  1881,  as  the  sixth  pres- 


340  MARK  HOPKINS. 

ident  of  Williams  College,  General  Garfield,  who 
had  represented  the  alumni  at  the  inauguration  of 
President  Chadbourne,  Dr.  Hopkins's  immediate 
successor,  should  again  speak  for  the  alumni.  He 
was  to  be  the  guest  of  Dr.  Hopkins  during  the 
Commencement  week.  He  had  just  started  on 
his  journey  to  Williamstown  to  fulfill  this  engage- 
ment, when  the  bullet  of  the  assassin  struck  him. 
When  the  swift  telegram  on  the  2d  of  July  car- 
ried the  bitter  intelligence  of  his  assassination  over 
the  land,  to  no  one  outside  of  his  own  family  was 
the  event  more  distressing  than  to  Dr.  Hopkins. 
The  telegrams  received  by  him  during  the  public 
exercises  of  the  Commencement  week  and  read  to 
the  various  assemblies  always  excited  deep  emotion. 
There  was  something  strikingly  pathetic  and  rep- 
resentative of  the  whole  people  in  the  eagerness 
with  which  the  venerable  man  received  these  dis- 
patches, in  the  encouragement  which  he  drew  from 
each  favorable  sign,  and  in  the  anxiety  that  seemed 
to  underlie  all  his  actions. 

Ahnost  immediately  after  this  gloomy  Com- 
mencement, which  was  nevertheless  brightened  by 
rays  of  hope,  Dr.  Hopkins  went  abroad  with  his 
wife  and  two  daughters.  Before  sailing,  he  sent  a 
letter  to  President  Garfield,  which  is  here  printed. 

Williams  College,  July  13,  1881. 
My  dear  President  Garfield,  —  We,  Mrs.  Hop- 
kins, Louisa,  Susie,  and  I,  leave  to-day  for  Europe,  with 
hearts  lightened  and  thankful  from  the  hope,  now  al- 
most i-eaching  assurance,  of  your  recovery.      The  shock 


THE  CLOSING    YEARS.  341 

here  during  Commencement  week,  the  grief,  disappoint- 
ment, and  suspense  were  fearful. 

Here  the  feeling  Avas  intensified,  but  over  the  whole 
country  it  was  a  wonderful  testimony  of  affectionate  re- 
gard. 

We  hope  to  return  in  about  three  months,  and  God 
grant  that  we  may  find  you  fully  restored. 

"With  affectionate  regards  from  us  all  to  Mrs.  Garfield 
and  yourself,  I  am,  with  the  highest  consideration, 

Yours,  Mark  Hopkixs. 

By  leaving  the  country  then,  Dr.  Hopkins  escaped 
in  a  measure  the  stress  of  daily  perturbations  to 
which  all  were  subject  who  honored  Garfield  and 
were  near  enough  to  read  the  frequent  reports  from 
the  room  of  the  sufferer.  Still  the  long,  painful 
illness  touched  him  constantly,  and  sometimes 
closely,  even  in  Europe,  and  the  death  enveloped 
foreign  lands  in  shadows  hardly  less  dense  than 
those  falling  upon  our  States. 

Dr.  Hopkins  returned  from  Europe  and  resumed 
his  work  in  the  college  towards  the  end  of  Novem- 
ber. His  health  was  benefited  by  the  voyage,  and 
seemed  very  vigorous,  when  one  recalled  that  he 
was  more  than  half  way  through  his  eighty-first 
year. 

Early  in  the  spring  of  1882  he  received  an  invi- 
tation from  the  trustees  of  the  college  to  deliver 
a  memorial    address  ^     on   President    Garfield  at 

^  This  address  is  published  in  the  book  Teachings  and  Coun- 
sels, issued  in  1884  by  Charles  Scribner's  Sons.  It  follows  the 
twentv  baccalaureate  sermons. 


342  MABE  HOPKINS. 

Commencement  in  July  of  that  year.  He  accepted 
the  invitation,  and  in  the  address  referred  most 
impressively  to  the  suffering  and  death  of  the  la- 
mented President. 

"I  make  no  attemj^t  to  interpret  the  providence 
which  permitted  the  death  of  President  Garfield  at 
such  a  time  and  in  such  a  manner.  To  me  clouds 
and  darkness  are  round  about  it.  But  that  he  was 
eminently  fitted  in  himself  and  in  the  circumstances 
of  his  death  to  be  the  object  of  a  gaze  which  should 
illustrate  the  power  of  sympathy  in  the  new  condi- 
tions under  which  the  race  is  placed  will  not  be 
denied." 

The  entire  oration  was  marked  by  a  calm  dignity 
and  sagacious  insight,  but  it  was  not  delivered  by 
Dr.  Hoj)kins  himself,  and  for  that  reason  as  spoken 
lost  the  effectiveness  that  his  venerable  presence 
and  his  deep,  personal  feeling  would  have  added. 
The  serious  illness  of  his  eldest  daughter,  Mary 
Louisa,  so  saddened  and  alarmed  him  that  he  put 
the  manuscript  into  the  hand  of  Rev.  Dr.  S.  I. 
Prime,  of  New  York  city,  at  that  time  the  oldest 
clerical  member  of  the  board  of  trustees,  and  it 
was  read  by  him  on  July  4,  1882,  to  a  large  audi- 
ence. The  circumstances  deepened  the  feeling  of 
solemnity,  and  the  gloom  of  the  previous  Com- 
mencement occasioned  by  the  startling  bullet  of 
Guiteau  seemed  to  return  and  envelop  the  commu- 
nity, as  the  universally  beloved  daughter  slipped 
away  to  the  unseen  world  from  the  home  of  her 
father.     Her  death  was  a  grievous  affliction  to  him 


THE  CLOSISG    YEARS.  343 

and  to  all  the  family.  '*I  have  known  no  one," 
are  Dr.  Hopkins's  touching  words  in  the  lettci'  to 
Dr.  Palmer,  "'who  seemed  to  me  to  come  nearer 
my  conception  of  a  saint."  With  that  pathetic 
sentence,  all  who  knew  her  will  agree.  She  was  a 
symmetrical,  lovely  character,  at  once  practical  and 
intellectual,  broad-minded  and  tender,  and  having 
great  powers  of  expression.  Somewhat  reserved  to 
strangers,  she  yet  always  conveyed  a  sense  of  her 
goodness,  and  no  one  who  was  privileged  to  catch 
a  w^ord  from  the  depths  of  her  life  could  fail  to  be 
ennobled  by  it  or  to  remember  the  moment  with 
grateful  joy.  She  was  like  her  father  in  intellec- 
tual qualities,  and  the  sympathy  between  them  was 
deep. 

The  next  year,  1883,  Dr.  Hopkins's  health  was 
for  a  time  quite  infirm.  This  was  the  year  in 
which  the  lectures  on  "The  Scriptural  Idea  of 
Man  "were  delivered  at  Princeton  in  the  early 
spring.  It  was  with  considerable  heroism  that 
this  honorable  duty  was  discharged.  One  of  the 
lectures  was  read  to  the  audience  by  Dr.  Green,  as 
Dr.  Hopkins  was  too  ill  that  day  to  attempt  the 
labor.  One  of  them  he  delivered,  rising  from  his 
bed  for  the  purpose,  and  retiring  almost  immedi- 
ately after  the  hour  was  ended.  He  returned  to 
his  home  in  Williamstown  late  in  the  spring,  but 
did  not  entirely  recover  from  his  weakness. 

He  was  annoyed  with  a  cough  and  with  inability 
to  digest  food.  He  went  from  his  home  to  the 
seaside  before  Commencement  to  secure  rest  and 


344  mauk  hopkixs. 

avoid  excitement.  His  old  pupils,  to  whom  the 
return  to  AVilliamstown  for  the  college  festivities 
meant  little  unless  they  saw  and  greeted  him  and 
received  his  greeting,  were  disappointed  to  miss  his 
venerable  and  still  stately  figure  about  the  college. 
He  returned  home  late  in  the  summer,  greatly  re- 
freshed and  improved  by  the  change.  He  looked 
forward  to  the  meeting  of  the  American  Board  at 
Detroit  with  the  determination  of  there  resigning 
his  presidency.  He  had,  however,  in  October,  re- 
gained his  strength  so  fully  that  he  endured  the 
fatigue  of  the  meeting  with  his  usual  ability,  and 
presided  with  admirable  efficiency.  He  was  finally 
persuaded  to  accept  the  office  for  another  year,  to 
the  great  satisfaction  of  the  corporate  members, 
and  continued  president  until  his  death. 

He  resumed  his  teaching  after  the  meeting,  and 
did  not  miss  a  recitation  during  the  cold  weather. 
Before  the  S23ring  came  the  cough  returned,  and 
he  felt  that  the  visit  to  his  children  at  Washington 
might  be  a  help  to  breaking  it  up.  He  left  home 
in  the  latter  part  of  March  and  returned  about  the 
middle  of  May,  very  much  improved.  At  Com- 
mencement that  year,  1884,  he  happened  to  enter 
the  chapel  during  the  alumni  meeting  at  the  time 
when  Dr.  Stanley  Hall,  then  of  the  Johns  Hop- 
kins University,  was  reading  the  report  of  the  com- 
mittee of  the  alumni  on  the  state  of  the  college. 
He  had  been  speaking  of  the  great  services  of  Dr. 
Hopkins  as  a  teacher  of  philosophy,  just  before 
his  old   preceptor  entered   the   room.      When   his 


THE  CLOSING    VEAE.S.  345 

familiar  and  venerable  form  moved  up  the  aisle, 
as  the  thoughts  of  all  were  just  then  fixed  upon 
him,  with  one  accord  the  whole  body  of  alumni  rose 
to  their  feet  to  do  him  honor. 

The  gift  of  <3^30,000  in  seven  per  cent,  bonds  made 
by  the  Hon.  William  E.  Dodge,  in  1867,  to  the 
college,  inasmuch  as  the  interest  was  for  Dr.  Hop- 
kins's use,  if  he  chose  to  give  up  his  teaching,  made 
it  possible  for  him  to  withdraw  comfortabty  at  any 
time  from  his  work  in  the  colleoe.  At  the  ae:e  of 
eighty -two,  with  the  consciousness  that  the  passing 
years  gave  of  declining  vigor,  there  was  no  dispo- 
sition on  his  part  to  shrink  from  the-  resumption  of 
his  teaching.  The  desire  to  be  under  his  instruc- 
tion was  strong  in  every  class,  and  in  the  later  years 
of  his  life  an  apprehension  was  often  expressed  by 
members  of  the  lower  classes  lest  when  their  class 
reached  the  Senior  year  he  should  have  given  up 
his  teaching. 

In  the  i^residential  election  of  1884  he  was  an 
elector-at-large  on  the  Eepublican  ticket  for  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  earnestly  hoped  for  the  success  of 
Mr.  Blaine.  When  he  began  teaching  that  au- 
tumn, the  class  had  in  it  the  two  elder  sons  of  the 
lamented  President  Garfield  and  sons  of  other  grad- 
uates, so  that  it  was  with  peculiar  pleasure  that  he 
undertook  the  instruction  of  this  class. 

His  speech  at  the  alumni  dinner  in  1885  was 
one  of  his  happiest.  The  American  Board  met 
this  year  at  Boston,  and  the  conditions  made  the 
labor  of  attendance  and  presiding  easier  than  on 


346  MARK  HOPKINS. 

some  previous  years,  but  the  anxiety  and  excitement 
were  wearing.  He  returned  again  to  his  college 
teaching  with  joy.  It  was  a  calm  and  beautiful 
age,  honored  by  his  pupils  and  reverently  regarded 
by  all  who  knew  him.  Everywhere  his  name  was 
spoken  with  affection.  The  debate  at  Des  Moines 
in  1886  and  the  agitations  of  the  American  Board 
have  already  been  discussed.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  these  matters  occupied  his  thought  and 
wore  upon  his  strength.  But  when  at  the  two  hun- 
dred and  fiftieth  amiiversary  of  Harvard,  in  1886, 
the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Laws  (Harvard  gave  him 
the  doctorate  of  Divinity  in  1841)  was  conferred 
upon  him,  and  the  great  audience  joined  in  vigorous 
applause  as  he  rose  before  them,  he  seemed  the  per- 
sonification of  serene  and  beautiful  old  age. 

Indeed,  when  in  the  spring  of  1887,  after  another 
winter's  teaching,  he  took  his  departure  for  Wash- 
ington, there  seemed  no  reason  to  fear  that  he 
would  not  go  on  with  his  instruction  for  a  few  years 
lono^er.  He  had  confidence  in  his  own  streno^th. 
He  had  spoken  within  a  year  of  having  delivered 
an  oration  at  the  semi-centennial  of  the  college  in 
1843,  and  of  his  hope  to  live  to  hear,  or  possibly  to 
give,  the  oration  at  the  centennial  in  1893.  But 
on  his  return  in  May  he  was  not  quite  up  to  his 
averaoje  streno^th.  There  seemed  to  be  a  little  less 
exuberance  of  spirit  and  a  little  more  conscious- 
ness of  age.  It  was  not  until  June  that  he  really 
seemed  ill.  He  took  cold,  and  his  strength  began 
to  fail.     Th3  family  physician.  Dr.  Hubbell,   the 


THE  CLOSING    YEABS.  347 

brother  of  Mrs.  Hopkins,  was  called  in,  but  there 
seemed  at  first  to  be  no  cause  for  alarm.  lie  kept 
about,  went  out  to  ride,  and  climbed  a  fence  and 
went  up  a  few  rods  from  the  road  to  the  spring 
which  supplies  the  village  only  two  or  three  days 
before  his  death.  This  was  on  Tuesday,  June  14. 
It  was  the  perfect  season  of  the  year.  I  remember 
his  once  saying  to  me  at  this  very  season,  as  we  sat 
in  the  twilight,  and  the  perfect  beauty  of  June  was 
about  us,  ''This  is  the  most  beautiful  season  of  the 
year.  But  it  passes  very  quickly."  It  was  in 
this  perfect  season  that  he  too  was  at  last  swiftly 
passing.  He  spoke  of  death  too  on  that  June 
evening  in  1868  (there  had  recently  been  a  sudden 
death  in  the  college),  and  then  quoted  Professor 
Kellogg,  as  having  once  said  to  him :  ''  Because  I 
have  been  so  often  near  death,  people  think  I  must 
know  something  of  it,  and  what  is  beyond.  But 
to  me,  as  to  all,  it  is  a  blank  wall."  On  AVednes- 
day  he  was  no  better,  but  arose  and  dressed,  and  on 
Thursday  made  himself  ready  with  difficulty  for  a 
festival  of  his  grandchildren,  whom  he  tenderly 
loved.  He  did  not  have  the  strength  after  dress- 
ing to  attend  the  little  party.  That  night  he  was 
restless,  could  not  breathe  easily,  and  sat  up  much 
of  the  time.  At  the  coming  of  dawn  he  seemed 
to  be  aware  that  his  sensations  meant  something 
grave.  As  the  birds  were  singing  their  morn- 
ing song,  and  he  was  breathing  with  difficulty,  he 
said  to  his  beloved  wife:  "Mary,  this  must  be 
death."     As  he  sat  there  on  the  side  of  the  bed, 


348  MARK  HOPKINS. 

erect,  majestic,  enduring,  his  head  dropped  a  lit- 
tle, and  his  spirit  had  flown. 

With  the  same  courage  and  faith  with  which  he 
had  met  many  a  crisis,  he  met  death.  There  is 
something  striking  in  the  fact  that  he  met  this  last 
enemy  sitting  and  looking  for  the  dawn.  One  is 
tempted  to  recall  Browning's  words  in  "Prospice," 

"  I  would  hate  that  death  handaged  my  eyes  and  forbore, 

And  bade  me  creep  past. 
No !  let  me  taste  the  whole  of  it,  fare  like  my  peers, 

The  heroes  of  old ; 
Bear  the  brunt,  in  a  minute  pay  life's  glad  arrears 

Of  pain,  darkness,  and  cold." 


THE  FINAL  TRIBUTE. 


"There  is  a  stream  whose  waves  divide 
Life  from  the  shady  shores  beyond  ; 

And  we  on  this  sad  side  are  found, 
Toiling  on  sandy  flats,  I  ween, 

Sighs  our  one  moisture,  tears  our  sheen, 
While  the  still  river  flows  between. 

"  And  yet,  when  our  beloved  rise 

To  gird  them  for  the  ford,  and  pass 

From  wilderness  to  springing  grass, 
From  barren  waste  to  living  green, 

We  weep  that  they  no  more  are  seen, 
And  that  the  river  flows  between. 

"  Ah,  could  we  follow  where  they  go 

And  pierce  the  holy  shade  they  find, 
One  grief  were  ours  —  to  stay  behind  I 

One  hope  —  to  join  the  Blest  Unseen  — 
To  plant  our  steps  where  theirs  have  been, 
And  find  no  river  flows  between." 

C.  C.  Fraser  Tytler,  Crossing  the  River. 


\ 


CHAPTER  XIV. 

THE   FINAL   TRIBUTE. 

It  was  on  the  morning  of  June  17  that  Dr. 
Hopkins  died.  On  the  following  Tuesday,  June 
21,  he  was  buried.  The  services  were  conducted 
by  the  Rev.  A.  C.  Sewall,  of  Schenectady,  who 
had  been  until  quite  recently  for  many  years  pas- 
tor of  the  Congregational  church  in  Williamstown, 
Professor  Edward  H.  Griffin,  then  connected  with 
the  college  as  associate  professor  of  philosophy, 
and  later  Dr.  Hopkins's  successor  in  the  profes- 
sorship of  "Intellectual  and  Moral  Philosophy," 
and  the  president  of  the  college.  Alumni  living 
in  remote  cities  and  towns,  the  officers  of  various 
religious  and  educational  institutions,  came  to  pay 
their  last  respects  to  the  gi^eat  teacher.  The  Sen- 
ior class,  the  class  of  1887,  formed  a  body-guard 
accompanying  the  remains  from  the  church  to  the 
peaceful  and  beautiful  cemetery  of  the  college.  It 
was  a  dark  and  gloomy  day,  but  at  one  point  dur- 
ing the  service  gleams  of  sunlight  came  through 
the  clouds  and,  shooting  through  a  window,  rested 
directly  upon  the  coffin.  The  life  had  been  great 
and  beautiful,  and  this  sunlight  seemed  like  a  rev- 
elation of  the  new  strength  and  joy  that  had  come 


352  MARE  HOPKINS. 

to  his  departed  spirit.  There  was  a  feeling  of  com- 
fort in  all  hearts  in  the  remembrance  of  his  long 
and  successful  labors,  and  of  the  deep  peace  that 
had  marked  his  later  years.  As  voicing  the  feel- 
ings of  those  who  had  known  him  best,  and  giving 
a  general  statement  of  the  grateful  love  and  honor 
in  which  his  pupils  held  him,  the  discourse  which 
I  delivered  on  that  occasion  may  close  this  record. 

As  I  passed  out  of  the  president's  house  early 
last  Friday  morning  in  response  to  the  startling 
message  sent  by  my  beloved  classmate,  the  pastor 
of  the  college  church,  I  carried  in  my  heart  the 
certainty  that  the  brightest  star  in  the  firmament 
covering  these  hills  had  set  to  rise  in  the  pure  ether 
of  heaven.  I  wondered  that  nature  was  still  busy 
with  her  weaving,  her  humming,  her  whispering, 
her  sparrows,  and  her  blades  of  grass,  and  did  not 
know  and  could  not  know  enough  to  weep  for,  or 
even  pause  to  think  of,  that 

*'  blossom  of  the  earth 
Which  all  her  harvests  were  not  worth." 

But  there  came  another  thought :  the  remembrance 
that  the  Prince  of  Life  had  assured  his  disciples 
that  the  hairs  of  their  heads  were  all  numbered, 
that  He  had  told  them  that  not  even  a  sparrow 
falls  to  the  ground  without  the  Heavenly  Father's 
notice,  and  had  asked  the  comforting  question, 
"Are  not  ye  of  more  value  than  many  sparrows?  " 
And  I  am  sure,  as  we  all  have  reflected  in  these 
intervening  days  on  the  life  that  ended  so  fittingly. 


THE  FINAL   TRIBUTE.  353 

its  long  and  beneficent  record,  its  great  powers  so 
wisely  used,  the  benignant  and  serene  atmosphere 
of  these  riper  years,  we  must  have  been  deeply 
impressed  with  the  grandeur  and  the  normal  perfec- 
tion of  many  of  its  features,  and  humbly  grateful 
that  God  has  granted  to  us  to  know  these  features 
and  this  life. 

This  is  not  the  time  for  the  analysis  and  eulogy 
of  a  great  intellectual  career,  but  rather  to  comfort 
one  another  with  words  of  gratitude  and  joyful 
recognition  of  what  God  has  given  us  through  this 
life  and  in  the  very  taking  of  it  away.  And  if  I 
call  3^our  attention  to  a  few  points  in  it,  partly  the 
gift  of  God  and  partly  the  conquest  of  faith  and 
patience,  and  our  hearts  are  thus  warmed  by  this 
contemplation  into  new  love  for  the  Redeemer  and 
new  trust  in  his  watcliful  care  of  all  his  saints,  it 
cannot  be  one  side  of  the  true  lessons  of  the  hour. 

Is  it  not  well  to  think  for  a  moment  of  the  length 
and  strength  of  the  life  of  this  hero-saint  ?  —  of 
the  eighty -five  years  that  he  lived,  of  the  sixty 
years  at  least  of  majestic  powers  fully  trained  and 
devoted  in  calm  but  ceaseless  activity  to  Christ's 
service?  We  recall  the  declaration  of  Moses,  that 
man  of  God,  that  "if  by  reason  of  strength  the 
days  of  our  years  be  fourscore  years,  yet  is  their 
strength  labor  and  sorrow,"  and  we  feel  that  these 
words  have  no  application  to  this  life ;  and  that,  as 
it  was  recorded  of  Moses  himself,  so,  too,  of  our 
teacher  it  may  be  said,  that  when  he  departed,  "his 
eye  was  not  dim,  nor  his  natural  force  abated. "    He 


354  MARK  HOPKINS. 

was  nearly  two  years  old  when  his  great-uncle, 
Samuel  Hopkins,  the  eminent  theologian,  died  in 
Newport  in  December,  1803.  Suppose,  now,  that 
he  had  been  five  years  old,  and  had  seen  and  re- 
membered that  illustrious  uncle ;  and  then  imagine 
that  one  of  these  little  grandsons  who  saw  and 
loved  and  will  remember  him  should  live  to  the  age 
of  eighty,  then  this  life  would  be  the  middle  link 
of  a  chain  of  three  links,  covering  nearly  two  hun- 
dred and  forty  years.  We  see  thus  how  many 
generations  may  be  linked  together,  and  what  a 
grasp  before  and  behind  this  life  had.  He  might 
have  been  spared  a  few  years  more,  perhaps,  but 
how  much  sweeter  to  remember  him  as  going  be- 
fore "the  keepers  of  the  house  began  to  tremble, 
and  the  strong  men  bowed  themselves,  and  those 
that  look  out  of  the  windows  were  darkened." 

Is  it  not  comforting,  too,  to  remember,  con- 
sidering simply  the  relationships  of  human  life, 
what  the  prophetic  dying  Jacob  called  in  the  He- 
brew idiom  "the  blessing  of  the  breasts  and  of 
the  womb,"  in  what  tender  and  gracious  ways  God 
blessed  our  teacher  and  father  and  friend  ?  From 
the  earlier  years  of  my  knowledge  of  life  in  this 
village  nothing  is  more  beautiful  to  recall  than 
the  brotherhood  of  him  who  has  now  gone  with  that 
gifted  and  revered  saint,  Albert,  who  died  in  1872. 
The  hands  that  clasped  each  other  affectionately  as 
co-workers  and  co-educators  in  this  college  played 
with  the  same  playthings  and  picked  the  same 
flowers   in   childhood.     As  little   boys  they  were 


THE  FINAL   TRIBUTE.  355 

taught  and  kissed  by  the  same  loving  mother's  lips. 
As  families  reproduce  in  successive  or  remoter  gen- 
erations their  features,  I  think  that  the  brotherhood 
of  Mark  and  Albert  Hopkins  in  some  measure 
reproduced  that  of  their  great  uncle  Samuel,  the 
profound  leader  of  New  England  theologians,  with 
his  younger  brother,  their  grandfather.  Colonel 
Mark.  The  subtle  acumen  of  the  great-uncle  reap- 
peared in  the  president,  Mark.  The  soldierly  fer- 
vor of  the  grandfather  Mark  reappeared  in  Albert. 
These  two  men,  dealing  with  the  two  subjects  that 
filled  Kant  with  wonder,  one  with  the  laws  and 
movements  of  the  stars,  the  other  with  the  laws  and 
movements  of  the  human  mind,  honored  through- 
out the  land,  had  forty  years  of  brotherhood  in  the 
kingdoms  of  scholarship  and  of  Christ.  And  if  I 
could  speak  of  that  more  delicate  and  tender  rela- 
tion, involving  that  profounder  mystery  by  which 
the  solitary  are  set  in  families,  every  heart  that 
knows  that  home  w^ould  throb  with  joyful  memo- 
ries of  the  perfect,  the  ideal  type  of  union,  which, 
so  early  formed  and  continued  so  long  beyond  the 
''golden  "  day,  has  been  the  admiration  of  all  and 
the  inspiration  of  many.  And  well  might  I  allude 
to  the  chivalrous  reverence  with  which  the  family 
relation  was  always  treated;  the  consummate  tact 
and  grace  with  which  every  family  duty  was  per- 
formed and  every  family  ordinance  solemnized ;  to 
the  numbers  of  little  children  (many  of  them  not 
of  his  kin)  whom  he  lovingly  baptized  ''into  the 
name  of  the  Father,  the  Son,  and  the  Holy  Gliost." 


856  MARK  HOPKINS. 

And  then  the  sons  and  daughters  and  grandchil- 
dren (almost  the  last  act  was  to  prepare  himself  for 
a  festival  of  the  little  ones),  —  who  can  help  looking 
upon  all  these  family  conditions  as  beautiful,  and 
who  that  knew  him  can  fail  to  remember  him  as 
the  beloved  head  of  them  all? 

Some  sorrows  came  through  this  organic  relation 
(the  thought  of  the  bitter  loss  of  five  years  ago  still 
causes  pangs  in  many  hearts),  but  how  many  joys, 
how  many  pure  and  noble  lives,  how  many  sweet 
and  winning  childhoods,  were  blest  in  their  claims 
upon  his  headship  of  an  ideal  family  and  are  to-day 
blended  in  the  loving  union  of  his  memory. 

And  passing  over  to  what  he  loved  with  an  al- 
most equally  intense  affection,  the  college  for  which 
he  lived,  and  which  he  carried  by  the  sheer  weight 
of  his  powers  for  so  many  years,  how  inspiring  to 
remember  that  of  the  seventeen  hundred  and  fifty 
living  alumni  he  had  taught  all  but  a  score  or  so 
the  principles  of  mental  life  and  growth,  the  truths 
of  ethics,  and  the  deeper  truths  of  Christian  faith. 

His  teaching  was  not  perfunctory  or  mechanical, 
but  was  adapted  in  every  case  to  the  conditions. 
His  keen  intelligence,  his  genuine  sympathy,  his 
ready  wit,  his  faith  in  the  possibilities  of  the  dull- 
est, made  his  lecture-room  a  pleasant  place,  —  the 
desire  of  the  earlier  years,  the  delight  of  his  class, 
and  the  memory  of  the  graduates.  Is  it  not  good 
to  remember  that  for  fifty- seven  years  he  moved  on 
as  teacher,  holding  perfectly  all  the  principles  and 
getting  constantly  a  grasp  of  new  ideas,  loving  each 


THE  FINAL    TRIBUTE.  867 

one  that  showed  any  love  for  truth,  and  leading 
here  and  elsewhere  by  his  words  and  books  men 
and  women  into  purer  knowledge  and  a  true  faith; 
and  seemed  as  bright,  as  clear,  as  sagacious,  as 
far-sighted  the  last  week  that  he  taught,  as  wlien 
he  became  president? 

He  knew  the  dangers  that  beset  us,  his  pui)ils ; 
perils  from  doubts,  and  passions,  and  apj^etites, 
aesthetics,  and  knowledge.  He  knew  how  easy  it  is 
for  the  feet  of  young  men  to  slip  downward,  and 
with  what  clearness,  and  love,  and  patience  he  held 
up  to  us  "the  power  of  the  endless  life." 

Let  me  quote  here  a  passage  from  a  poem  which 
has  as  much  fitness  for  him  as  for  the  great  teacher 
to  whom  his  son  addressed  it:  — 

*'  But  thou  wouldst  not  alone 
Be  saved,  niy  father  !     Alone 
Conquer  and  come  to  thy  |2:oal, 
Leaving-  the  rest  in  the  wihL 
We  were  weary,  and  we 
Fearful,  and  we  in  our  njarch 
Fain  to  drop  down  and  to  die. 
Still  thou  turnedst,  and  still 
Gavest  the  weary  thy  hand. 
If  in  the  paths  of  the  world, 
Stones  might  have  wounded  thy  feet, 
Toil  or  dejection  have  tried 
Thy  spirit,  of  that  we  saw 
Nothing  —  to  us  thou  wast  still 
Cheerful,  and  helpful,  and  fiiTU  1 
Therefore  to  thee  it  was  given 
Many  to  save  with  thyself ; 
And  at  the  end  of  thy  day, 
O  faithful  shepherd  I  to  come, 
Bringing-  thy  sheep  in  thy  liand." 


368  MAEK  HOPKINS. 

And  so  we  the  alumni  of  the  college  come  as  one 
great  family,  looking  up  to  him  as  our  father  and 
head,  and  praising  God  for  the  equable  calmness 
and  abundant  teaching  of  his  life,  for  the  wide- 
ness  of  his  thoughts  and  charity,  for  the  stamp  of 
manly  power  that  he  set  on  every  receptive  mind. 

This  is  the  last  of  the  examples  in  New  England 
of  the  college  president  as  the  father,  teacher, 
counselor,  and  guide.  Very  different  conditions 
now  exist  to  determine  the  character  of  the  office; 
and  as  it  was  the  last  of  these  presidencies,  I  think 
it  has  also  been  the  most  perfect  of  them  all.  In 
him  the  early  system  produced  a  perfect  type.  In 
a  large  college  the  relation  is  not  so  intimate,  and 
as  no  president  ever  taught  so  long,  so  wisely,  with 
such  massive  simplicity  and  condescending  aptness, 
none  ever  had  behind  him  so  large  and  so  loyal  a 
body  of  grateful  and  enthusiastic  pupils.  But  the 
tears  that  hundreds  of  educated  men  shed  to-day 
are  tears  of  gratitude  and  joy.  It  is  a  reverent, 
believing  body  who  have  been  taught  by  him  to 
look  up  to  a  personal  God,  and  have  seen  in  him  the 
influence  of  God's  personal  abiding  presence,  and 
have  learned  to  have  faith  in  immortality  for  the 
good,  even  for  him. 

What  the  ongoing  of  the  college  will  be  without 
bis  consummate  tact,  his  serene  wisdom,  the  balance 
and  play  of  his  perfect  judgment,  the  colossal  solid- 
ity of  his  character,  I  cannot  tell.  But  let  me 
break  the  silence  of  official  reserve  and  say  that  he 
has  spoken  to  me  only  loving  words.     Never  in 


THE  FINAL   TRIBUTK.  359 

these  six  years  has  he  dune  aught  but  put  the  mas- 
sive force  of  his  reputation  and  powers  most  lov- 
ingly at  the  disposition  of  those  intrusted  with 
the  dear  old  college.  How  desolate  the  landscape 
will  be  without  any  reappearance  of  his  majestic 
figure ! 

A  thing  most  gratefully  to  be  remembered  is  the 
childlike  responsiveness  of  his  mind  that  was  never 
more  noticeable  than  in  these  last  years.  Every 
gain  for  the  college  in  material  prosperity  moved 
him  deeply.  My  last  talk  w^ith  him  was  about  a 
much-needed  improvement,  and  it  was  with  an  in- 
tense earnestness  that  he  expressed  his  hope  for  its 
accomplishment.  It  seems  strange  now  that  since 
my  last  talk  with  him  I  should  have  had  a  conver- 
sation about  the  deep  things  of  Christ's  kingdom 
only  the  day  b.fare  his  death  with  the  great  son 
whom  Amherst  buries  to-day,  and  whose  loss  seems 
more  inscrutable  than  that  of  our  master.  Am- 
herst and  Williams  mingle  tears  to-day  over  illus- 
trious dead. 

Dr.  Hopkins  had  known  the  struggle  of  long 
poverty  for  the  college ;  of  bitter  inability  to  se- 
cure for  his  students  the  advantages  that  greater 
resources  would  have  given,  and  I  am  bold  enough 
to  say  that  the  full  distress  of  some  of  those  trials 
no  man,  not  even  his  brother,  fully  knew.  It  was 
whispered,  I  doubt  not,  into  the  ear  of  God,  and 
when  at  last  there  came  in  these  last  years,  not  opu- 
lence, but  some  additions  to  our  scanty  resources, 
his  feeling  was  purely  one  of  grateful  delight.     But 


360  MARK  HOPKINS. 

his  responsiveness  was  not  in  the  least  childish, 
only  eliildlike,  for  his  sagacity,  his  penetration,  his 
insight,  were  vigorous  to  the  end,  and  no  member 
of  the  board  of  trustees  had  a  more  perfect  appre- 
ciation of  the  changes  in  the  conditions  of  modern 
education,  or  opened  his  mind  more  readily  to  a 
perception  of  the  fact  that  the  college  of  to-day 
could  not  be  the  college  of  fifty  years  ago.  So  his 
mind  was  open  to  every  new  and  true  idea,  and  ap- 
preciated with  ever-increasing  fairness  the  broad- 
ening influence  of  art,  of  culture,  of  literature  and 
science,  as  well  as  of  religion.  I  never  expect  to 
see  an  instance  in  which  equally  to  the  very  end  of 
a  lonof  life  the  mind  turned  to  the  lioht,  and  the 
man,  "like  a  tree  planted  by  the  rivers  of  water," 
opened  sweet  flowers  of  wisdom,  justice,  and  char- 
ity in  larger  and  larger  proportions  and  greater  and 
greater  beauty,  until  the  frost  came.  Beautiful 
beyond  expression  are  the  declining  years  of  such 
a  life.  Friends,  comrades,  undergraduates,  weep 
not,  but  lift  up  your  hearts  to  God  for  the  long 
expansiveness  and  the  rare  fertility  of  this  gifted 
and  divinely  guided  mind.  What  he  was  to  the 
family,  to  the  college,  that  he  was  to  the  mission- 
ary movement,  —  always  at  the  head,  king  of  men 
by  the  grace  of  God,  and  leader  of  saints  by  "the 
faith  that  overcometh." 

What  he  desired  was  that  the  church  should  see 
the  face  and  know  the  mind  of  the  divine  Christ. 
That  Christ's  teachers  should  be  more  and  more 
Christlike,    that  they   should    not    contend    about 


THE  FINAL   TRIBUTE.  361 

"titLesof  mint,  anise,  and  cummin,"  or  even  about 
the  human  formulas  which  can  express  in  but  a 
limited  way  Christ's  divine  glory.  With  what  mas- 
terly words  he  would  sweep  away  irrelevant  issues, 
and  hold  up  the  true,  the  vital  point  in  a  discus- 
sion. With  something  of  the  prophetic,  states- 
manlike power  of  his  brother  Albert,  refined  by 
his  responsibilities  and  long  dealing  with  minds, 
he  could  foresee  results;  but  a  joyful  optimism, 
founded  on  faith  in  Christ  as  the  head  of  the  uni- 
verse and  on  the  coming  of  his  kingdom,  may 
sometimes  have  led  him  to  underrate  the  power  of 
passion  and  prejudice  in  the  hearts  of  even  the  best 
men.  What  schisms  of  the  church  he  loved,  what 
rupture  of  institutions  dear  to  him  as  his  life,  death 
may  have  sealed  his  eyes  from  beholding,  we  know 
not.  But  this  we  do  know,  that  the  last  year  and 
the  last  hours  of  his  life  his  great  mind  sought  with 
unceasing  attention  to  find  and  establish  an  honor- 
able way  by  which,  with  unabated  zeal,  with  un- 
diminished resources,  with  undivided  powers,  men 
of  varying  shades  of  opinion  in  all  our  land  might 
work  together  as  heretofore  in  the  upbuilding  of 
the  Redeemer's  kingdom,  in  proclaiming  to  the  out- 
cast and  the  heathen  the  gospel  of  Christ. 

What  he  longed  for  was  the  conversion  of  the 
world  to  the  divine  Christ.  If  I  may  read  an 
extract  from  a  letter  forwarded  to  Dr.  Denison  by 
Rev.  Mr.  Hume,  who  spent  Sunday,  the  12th  of 
June,  with  him,  it  will  have  intense  interest  for  us 
all,  and  especially  for  the  students :  — 


362  MARK  HOPKINS. 

New  Haven,  June  19. 

My  dear  Dr.  Dexisox,  —  A  week  ago  this  Sunday, 
in  conversation  with  Dr.  Hopkins,  I  asked  him  as  to  his 
conception  of  the  best  plan  for  a  text-book  on  theology 
for  the  use  of  ^jreachers  in  India.  On  Monday  morn- 
ing he  said  to  me  :  "  I  have  been  thinking  over  our  con- 
versation about  a  book  on  theology,  and  suggest  that  you 
begin  with  the  subject  of  man  instead  of  God.  But  the 
crucial  point  in  the  system  will  be  how  to  show  man  his 
sinfulness  and  need  of  a  Saviour.  Suppose  you  tried  to 
show  that  man  is  part  of  a  universal  and  perfect  moral 
system,  while  himself  out  of  harmony  with  it.  The 
Hindus  can  be  made  to  see  that  the  entire  universe  is 
controlled  by  a  perfect  system  —  gravitation  and  other 
great  laws  extending  to  every  atom.  Similarly  there  is 
doubtless  a  perfect  moral  government  reaching  every 
part  of  the  system.  I  expect  to  preach  in  the  college 
chapel  next  Sunday  from  the  text  '  There  is  joy  in  the 
presence  of  the  angels  of  God  over  one  sinner  that  re- 
penteth.'  I  shall  say :  If  there  is  joy  in  heaven  over 
one  sinner  that  repenteth,  then  in  heaven  they  know 
what  is  taking  place  here.  Also,  they  know  not  only 
the  external  but  the  internal  life  of  the  world,  because 
repentance  is  an  inward  thing.  So  I  could  go  on  to 
show  that  one  system  pervades  heaven  and  earth.  You 
can  see  how  this  can  be  followed  out." 

Very  likely  no  one  else  knew  what  plans  he  had  made 
for  the  subject  of  his  preaching  to-day.  This  conversa- 
tion occurred  only  a  week  ago.  And  to-day,  instead  of 
preaching  in  Williamstown,  he  has  gone  to  serve  where 
he  doubtless  knows  more  of  that  universal  and  perfect 
system  than  even  he  knew  a  week  ago,  and  there  must 
be  joy  in  heaven  over  a  ripe  saint  called  to  enter  into 
the  joy  of  his  Lord, 


THE  FINAL   TRIBUTE.  363 

Thus  to  the  very  end  the  oneness  of  God's  khig- 
dom  filled  his  mind,  and  he  marched  from  pre- 
mise to  conclusion  with  clear  logic  and  sublime 
faith. 

The  death  of  a  good  great  man  is  always  impres- 
sive, but  in  this  case  it  cannot  be  sad.  In  a  per- 
fect poem  which  our  revered  teacher  loved  and  once 
at  least  repeated,  "the  good  great  man  "  is  said  to 
have 

"  Three  fast  friends,  more  sure  than  day  or  nig-ht  — 
Himself,  his  Maker,  and  the  ang-el.  Death." 

The  man  fixes  from  day  to  day  his  character.  As 
life  goes  on,  to  the  stature  of  his  being  something  is 
added;  from  it  something  is  taken,  but  the  scaf- 
folding of  daily  relations  is  there,  and  hides  the 
figure.  Death  removes  the  scaffolding;  makes  it 
plain  what  the  man  really  was ;  moves  out  into  the 
bright  sunlight  and  the  gaze  of  all  the  statue  in 
its  calm  completeness.  Beneath  the  cross  even 
the  centurion  said:  "Truly  this  was  the  son  of 
God."  To-day  we  see  clearly  what  our  master  was, 
and  we  need  not  wage  any  "feud  with  Death  "  that 
he  has  thus  made  certain  the  symmetry  in  which 
we  believed  before ;  that  he  makes  it  sure  to  us  that 
this  personality  was  so  rounded  in  life's  struggles 
as  to  "become  a  pillar  in  the  temple  of  our  God 
and  go  no  more  out  forever." 

What  then  has  Death  done  to  us  in  this  event 
that  we  should  grieve  ?  Do  you  say :  "  He  has  re- 
moved this  great  teacher  so  far  that  we  cannot  hear 
him  speak?"    Is  even  that  true?    No.     "He  being 


364  MARK  HOPKINS. 

dead  yet  speaketli,"  will  always  speak  in  the  live;? 
of  his  children  and  his  children's  children,  in  the 
words  of  his  pupils  and  of  his  pupils'  pupils;  for 
"God  has  mercy  unto  thousands  of  generations 
upon  them  that  love  Him  and  keep  his  command- 
ments." 

As  we  look  back  then  at  this  life,  and  see  how 
unique  it  was  in  many  features,  —  unique  in  its 
lengthened  continuanc^e  of  unabated  powers,  won- 
derfid  in  the  normal  beauty  of  the  family  relations, 
unique  in  the  grandeur  of  its  endowments,  unique 
in  the  extent  and  intensity  of  its  personal  influence, 
—  so  that  he,  like  Abraham,  by  heroic  sainthood 
became,  as  it  were,  the  intellectual  and  spiritual 
leader  of  a  great  race ;  —  unique  in  the  oj)enness 
and  receptivity  of  his  mind,  unique  in  the  cordial 
love  that  came  to  him  from  every  side,  —  could  we 
ask  that  one  feature  should  be  changfed?  Can  we 
do  otherwise  than  thank  God  for  such  an  inherit- 
ance of  faith  and  love  and  wisdom  which  the  con- 
secration of  his  great  powers  to  the  Redeemer  has 
secured  us?  And  have  not  those  whose  loss  is 
deepest,  deepest  cause  for  gratitude?  Have  we 
not  all  profound  reason  to  praise  God  that  his  death 
has  been  "but  a  step  out  of  a  tent  already  luminous 
with  light  which  shone  through  its  transparent 
walls?".  Surely  upon  him  has  been  fulfilled  the 
prophecy  of  Jacob :  — 

"  The  blessings  of  thy  father  have  prevailed  above 
the  blessings  of  my  progenitors  unto  the  utmost 
bound  of  the  everlasting  hills ;  they  shall  be  on  the 


THE  FINAL   TRIBUTE.  365 

head  of  Joseph  and  on  the  crown  of  the  head  of  him 
that  was  separate  from  his  brethren." 

None  of  us  will  see  his  like  again.  God  be 
praised  that  we  have  seen  Aim,  and  known  Mm^ 
and  loved  him.     Amen. 


LIST   OF   REV.    DR.   MARK    HOPKINS'S   PUB- 
LISHED  WRITINGS. 

Including,  so  far  as  ascertained,  Addresses,  Sermons,  and  Magazine 
Articles. 

1.  Agricultural  Address  at  Stockbridge.     1826. 

2.  On   Mystery.     American  Joximal  of  Science  and   Arts,  vol. 

xiii.  No.  2,  April,  1828. 

3.  Argument  from  Nature  for  the  Divine  Existence.    The  Ameri- 

can Quarterly  Observer,  vol.  i.  No.  2,  October,  1833. 

4.  On  Human  Happiness.     Ibid.,  vol.  iii.  No.  2,  October,  1834. 

5.  On  the  Adaptation  of  Christianity  to   the  Moral  Nature  of 

Man.  The  Biblical  Repository  and  Quarterly  Observer, 
vol.  v.  No.  2,  April,  1835. 

6.  On  Originality.     Ibid.,  vol.  vi.  No.  2,  October,  1835. 

7.  Inaugural  Discourse.     1836. 

8.  Taste  and  Morals.     Two  Lectures.     1836. 

9.  Influence  of  the  Gospel  in  Liberalizing  the  Mind.    Delivered  as 

an  address  before  the  Porter  Rhetorical  Society  of  the 
Andover  Theological  Seminary,  September  .5,  1837.  The 
Biblical  Repository  and  Quarterly  Observer,  vol.  x.  No.  2, 
October,  1837. 

10.  Sermon  commemorative  of  Dr.  Griffin.     1837. 

11.  Election  Sermon.     18-39. 

12.  Address  before  the  American  Bible  Society.     1840. 

13.  Address  at  Mount  Holyoke  Seminary.     1840. 

14.  Address  to  the  Medical  Class  at  Pittsfield.     1840. 

1.5.  Address  at  the  Dedication  of  Williston  Seminary,  Easthamp- 
ton.     1841. 

16.  Semi-Centennial  Address  at  Williams  College.     1843. 

17.  Sermon  before   the    Pastoral    Association  of    Massachusetts. 

184.3. 

18.  Berkshire  Jubilee  Sermon.     1844. 


368  PUBLISHED   WRITINGS. 

19.  Sermon  before  the  Convention  of  Congregational  Ministers. 

1845. 

20.  Sermon  before  the  American  Board   of   Commissioners  for 

Foreign  Missions  at  Brooklyn.     1845. 

21.  Sermon  commemorative  of  Professor  Ebenezer  Kellogg.     1846. 

22.  Sermon  at  Plymouth  on  Forefathers'  Day.     1846. 

23.  Temperance  Address  to  the  People  of  Massachusetts.     1846. 

24.  Evidences  of  Christianity.      Lowell  Lectures.     1846. 

25.  Sermon   before  the  American    and  Foreign  Sabbath  Union. 

1847. 

26.  Miscellaneous  Essays  and  Discourses.     Comprising  a  selection 

from  the  above  enumerated  pamphlets.     1847. 

27.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.    Faith,  Philosophy,  and  Reason.    1850. 

28.  Sermon  at  Dedication  of  Congregational  Church  in  Pittsfield. 

1850. 

29.  Sketch  of  Rev.  Dr.  Alvan  Hyde  in  Sprague's  Annals  of  the 

American  Pulpit.     1851. 

30.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Strength  and  Beauty.     1851. 

31.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Receiving  and  Giving.     1852. 

32.  Address  before  Society  for  promoting  Collegiate  and  Theolo- 

gical Education  at  the  West.     1852. 

33.  Sermon  commemorative  of  Amos  Lawrence.     1853. 

34.  The  Central  Principle.     An  oration  before  the  New  England 

Society  of  New  York.     1854. 

35.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Perfect  Love.     1855. 

36.  Discourse  before  Congregational  Library  Association.     1855. 

37.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Self-Denial.     1856. 

38.  Science  and  Religion.     Sermon  before  American  Association 

for  the  Advancement  of  Science.     1856. 

39.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Higher  and  Lower  Good.     1857. 

40.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Eagles'  Wings.     Title  changed  later 

to  "  The  One  Exception."     1858. 

41.  A  Missionary  Sermon  delivered  at  Bangor,  Me.     1858. 

42.  Address  at  the  Laying  of  the  Corner  Stone  at  the  People'c 

College,  Havana,  N.  Y.     1858. 
4>.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Manifoldness  of  Man.     1859. 

44.  Sermon  Dedicatory  of  Williams  College  Chapel.     1859. 

45.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Nothing  to  be  Lost.     1860. 

46.  Sermon   at  Ordination  of    Rev.   C.    M.    Hyde   at   Brimfield. 

1862. 


PUBLISHED    WlUTlSas.  3G9 

47.  Baccalaureate  ISerniou.     The  Living-  House,  or  (iod's  Method 

of  Social  Unity.     1S02. 

48.  Lectures  on  Moral  Science.     Lowell  Lectures.     1802. 

49.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Enlargement.      18()o. 

5  ).   Discourse  commemorative  of  Nathan  Jackson.      18153. 

51.  The  Sabbath  and  Free  Institutions.     A  paper  read  before  the 

National  Sabbath  Convention  at  Saratoga.     1803. 

52.  Baccalaureate  Sermons,  as  a  volume.     1808. 

5.J.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Choice  and  Service.     1804. 

54.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Providence  and  Revelation.     1805. 

55.  Sermon  at  Funeral  of  Rev.  Emerson  Davis,  D.   D.,  Westfield, 

Massachusetts,  1800. 

50.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     The  Bible  and  Pantheism.     1800. 

57.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Liberality  —  its  Limits.     1807. 

58.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Zeal.     1808. 

59.  Colleges  and  Stability.     A  discourse  delivered  at    Marietta 

College,  Marietta,  Ohio.      1808. 

00.  The  Law  of  Love  and  Love  as  a  Law.   Lowell  Lectures.    1809. 

01.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Spirit,  Soul,  and  Body.     1809. 

02.  What  must  I  do  to  be  saved  ?    A  Tract.     1870. 
08.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     Life.     1870. 

04.  Memorial  Address  at  Providence  :   commemorating  the  25Cth 

anniversary  of  Congregationalism  in  this  country.     1870. 

05.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.    The  Body,  the  Temple  of  God.    1871. 
00.  Address  at  the  Edwards  Memorial  in  Stockbridge.     1871. 

07.  Baccalaureate  Sermon.     The  Circular  and  the  Onward  Move- 

ment.    1872. 

08.  Modern  Skepticism  in  relation  to  Young  Men.     An  address 

before  Young  Men's  Christian  Associations.     1872. 

09.  Letter  on   Education  to  the  Japanese  Minister  in  a  volume 

entitled  "  Education  in  Japan."     1873. 

70.  Prayer  and  the  Prayer  Gauge.     A  Discourse.     1878. 

71.  Sermon  at  the  Funeral  of  Rev.  John  Todd,  D.  D.     1873. 

72.  Sunday    Legislation.      An   address    before    the   Evangelical 

Alliance.     1873. 
78.  An  Outline  Study  of  ]Man.     Lowell  Lectures.     1873. 

74.  Strength   and    Beauty :    Discussions   for  Young   Men.      The 

Baccalaureate  Sermons  somewhat  modified. 

75.  Temperance  and  Education.    A  Tract.     1875. 

70.  Colportage  by  Theological  Stxxdents.     Tract  Society  Address. 
No  date. 


J 


370  PUBLISHED    WRITINGS. 

77.  The   Law   of    Px-ogress.      Centennial   Discom-se    before    the 

Alumni  of  Williams  College.     1876. 

78.  Faith.     Princeton  Review,  54th  year,  September,  1878. 

79.  The  Moral  Problem.     Two  articles.     International   Review, 

vol.  V.  Nos.  o  and  4,  May  and  July,  1878. 

80.  Professor  Tyndall  upon  the  Origin  of  the  Cosmos.     Prince- 

ton Review,  55th  year,  November,  1879. 

81.  Grounds  of  Knowledg-e  and  Rules  for  Belief.   Ibid.,  57th  year, 

January,  1881. 

82.  Memorial  Discourse  on  President  Garfield.     1882. 

8t3.  Personality  and  Law.     The  Duke  of  Arg'yll.     Princeton  Re- 
view, 5Sth  year,  September,  1882. 

84.  Sermon  at  the   Dedication  of  the  Congregational  Church  in 

Great  Barrington.     1883. 

85.  The  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man.     Lectures  before  Yale  Theolo- 

gical Seminary.  1883. 

86.  Sermon  at  the  Dedication  of  the  Memorial  Church  at  Hamp- 

ton Institute,  Virginia.     1884. 

87.  Teachings  and  Counsels.    The  Baccalaureates  in  their  original 

form,  except  that  the  addresses  to  tho  classes  are  abridged 
or  omitted.  To  these  is  added  the  Discourse  on  President 
Garfield.     1884. 

88.  Optimism.     Andover  RevieAv.  vol.  iii.  No.  15,  March,  1885. 

89.  Discourse  commemorative  of  the  Fiftieth  Anniversary  of  his 

election  as  President  of  Williams  CoUege.     1886. 

90.  The  Place  of  the  Sensibility  in  Morals.     Homiletic  Review, 

vol.  xiii.  No.  2,  February,.  1887. 


INDEX. 


Adams  Academy,  79. 
Africa,  232. 
Agvssiz,  154. 

Alden,  Rev.  Dr.  E.  K.,  253. 
Alumni  Hall,  S4. 
Alumni  meetintr,  314. 
Alumni,  Williams.  126,  338,  340,  351. 
America,  moflern  theology  of,  328. 
American    Board    of    Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions,  73,  303,  308 ; 
anniversary  of  foundation  of,   234; 
formation  of,  235;  meeting  at  Provi- 
dence,  205  ;  Pittsfield,    208  ;  Pitts-  | 
burgh,   209;     Hxrtford,    212;    Mil-  I 
waulsee,     213;    Lowell,     220;   Dis 
Moines,  237,  250,   2G2 ;  Salem,  248; 
Portland.  249  ;  Springfield,  258,  274  ;  I 
Columbus,  317  ;  Detroit,  344 ;  Bos-  ; 
ton,  345.  I 

American  boys,  53. 
"  American    Journal  of   Science  and  j 

Art=!,"  27. 
American  Tract  Society,  26. 
Amherst,  359. 
Anatomy,  study  of,  327. 
Andover,  80. 
"  Andover  Review,"  316. 
Andover    Theological    Seminary,    41, 

116,  242-247,  279. 
Andrew*,  Israel  W.,  115. 
Angell,  President,  274. 
Apocrypha,  300. 
Arcturus,  318. 
Argyle,  Dake  of,  156. 
Aristotle,  148,  162. 
Armsby,  Dr.,  of  the  Albany  Medical 

College,  64. 
Armstrong,  General  S.  C,  121. 
Arnold,    Matthew,    quotation    from, 

357. 
Astronomical  observatory,  05,  75 

Bacon,  Rev.  Dr.  Leonard,  283. 
Bincroft,  George,  299. 
Biscom,  John,  79,  88. 
Bath,  Me.,  279. 
Benares,  189. 
Bennington,  118. 


Berlin,  189. 

Blaine,  James  G.,  307,  308,  345. 

Boston,  67,  90,  117,  189,  244,  289;  ad- 
dress at,  by  Dr.  Hopkins,  234. 

Boston,  American  Board  meetmg  at, 
345;  lectures  by  Dr.  Hopkins  at, 
292. 

Boston  University,  153,  290. 

Bowerman,  Samuel  W.,  70. 

Brahminism,  189. 

Bridgeport,  Conn.,  280. 

Brown  University,  42-44. 

Browning,  Robert,  137 ;  quotation 
from,  34S. 

Buchanan,  James,  274. 

Buddhism,  189. 

Bullock,  Alexander  H.,  letter  from, 
71. 

Bushnell.  Horace,  257. 

Butler,  Bishop,  136. 

Butler's  Analogy,  136,  138. 

Canfield,  James  H.,  325. 

Canning,  E.  W.B.,  27,  32. 

Calderwood's  "  Philosophy  of  the  In- 
finite," 284. 

California,  290,  299. 

Cambridge,  3,  157. 

Carter,  Franklin,  340. 

Chadbourne,  President,  116,  339. 

Chicago,  153. 

"Christian  Theology,"  chair  of,  at 
Andover,  242. 

"  Circular  and  the  Onward  Move- 
ment, the,"  sermon  by  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, 195. 

Clark,  Rev.  Dr.  N.  G.,  253. 

Cleveland,  Grover,  307. 

Clinton,  New  York,  Dr.  Hopkins  fitted 
I      for  college  at,  11. 

Co\n,  Titus  Manson,  119. 

Coleridge,  1(54  ;  quotation  from,  332. 

College  Hall,  75. 

Colleges  of  New  England,  43-45,  51- 
53. 

Columbus,  Ohio,  120,  317. 

Combe's  "  Health  and  Mental  Educa- 
tion," 108. 


372 


INDEX. 


Commencement  1871,  16;  1884,  344. 

Confederate  insurrection,  70. 

Congregationalism,  52. 

"  Congregationalist,"  244,  305. 

CoDgregationalists,  43. 

Corwiu,  Rev.  Dr.  Eli,  116. 

Court  of  Claims,  335. 

Curtis,  Rev.  Jared,  uncle  of  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, 11. 

Curtis,  Mary,  mother  of  Dr.  Hopkins, 
9. 

Curtis,  Rev.  Moses  Ashley,  11. 

D ALTON,  Mass.,  29. 

Darwin,  Charles,   154,  155,  157-159. 

Democratic  party,  308. 

Deuison,  Rev.  Dr.  John  H.,  122,  305, 
352.  361,  362. 

Des  Moines,  237,  249 ;  address  at,  by 
Dr.  Hopkins,  250. 

Dewey,  Cliester,  24. 

Dexter,  Professor  F.  B.,  7. 

Diman,  Professor,  of  Brown  Univer- 
sity, 44. 

Dimmock,  Professor  William  R.,  79. 

Dixon,  Rev.  William  E.,  34. 

Dodge,  William  E.,  73,  345. 

Dwight,  Colonel,  13. 

Dwiglit,  Edwin,  13. 

Dwight,  President,  250,  254. 

East  College,  74,  75. 

Edmunds,  Senator,  299. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  4,  163,  320. 

Emerson,  301. 

Enfield,  Conn.,  34. 

England,  146,  162. 

England,  Church  of,  257. 

Esdras,  300. 

"  Essays    and    Discourses "    by  Dr. 

Hopkins,  28. 
*'  Evidences  of  Christianity,"  114, 136- 

144,  326,  328. 

"Faith,"'  article  on,  by  Dr.  Hopkins, 

297  ;  definition,  329. 
Faust,  156. 

Fellows,  General  John,  6. 
Field,  David  Dudley.  74. 
Fitch,    Rev.   Dr.,    hrst  president    of 

Williams  College,  CO. 
Forty  Years'  Record  of  the  Class  of 

1845,  121. 
Foster,  Rev.  Dr.  Addison  P.,  128. 
France,  146,  162. 
Free    College    (in    New  York    city), 

299. 
Froude,  297. 

Garfield,  James  A.,  75,  116,  299,  302, 
333-342,  345 ;  assassination  of,  340  ; 
reply  to  Dr.  Hopkins's  address, 
339. 

Garfield,  Mrs.  James  A.,  334,  336. 


General  Court  of  Connecticut,  4. 

Germany,  146,  189. 

Gilfillan,  James,  299. 

Gilson,  Professor  Charles  F.,  79. 

Gladden,  Rev,  Dr.  Washington,  120  ; 

poem  by,  110. 
Goodrich,  John  Z.,  74  ;  wife  of,  65. 
Goodrich  Hall,  75. 
Goodwin,  Rev.  Dr.  E.  P.,  231-233. 
Gray,  Professor  Asa,  155, 157. 
Great  Barriugton,  Mass.,  4,  306. 
Greek,  17. 

Green,  Rev.  Dr.  William  H.,  343. 
Griffin  Hall,  75. 

Griffin,  Rev.  Dr.,  24,  32,  59,  60. 
Griffin,   Professor    Edward    H.,   122, 

351. 
Guiteau,  342. 

Hadlet,  Professor,  of  Yale,  44. 

Hall,  President  G.  Stanley,  327,  344. 

Hall,  Alumni,  84  ;  College,  75  ;  Griffin, 
75 ;  Goodrich,  75  ;  Jackson,  75  ; 
Kellogg,  75  ;  Lawrence,  75. 

Hamilton,  Sir  William,  102-105,  281. 

Hammond,  Colonel  C.  G.,  304. 

Hampton,  Virginia,  121. 

Hampton  Normal  and  Agricultural 
Institute,  121. 

Hardy,  Alpheus,  249,  253. 

Harrison,  Frederic,  296. 

Hartford,  3,  283  ;  address  at,  by  Dr. 
Hopkins,  212. 

Harvard,  42^4  ;  medical  school,  41  ; 
motto  of,  40  ;  250th  anniversary  of, 
346. 

Haystack  prayer-meeting,  53. 

Hazard,  Rowland  G.,  281,  304. 

Hervey,  William,  24. 

Hillsborough,  N.  C,  11. 

Hindus,  318,  362. 

History  of  the  United  States,  124. 

Hodge,  Rev.  Dr.  Charles,  128,  288. 

Honolulu,  116. 

Hoosick  Fills,  N.  Y.,  128. 

Hopkins,  Professor  Albert,  brother  of 
Dr.  Mirk  Hopkins,  10,  11,  54,  55, 
354,  355,  361  ;  construction  by  him 
of  first  college  observatory,  65,  119  ; 
death  of  his  .son.  199. 

Hopkins,  Archibald,  8. 

Hopkins,  Caroline,  305. 

Hopkins,  Henry,  brother  of  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, 10. 

Hopkins,  John,  3. 

Hopkins,  Colonel  Mark,  5-7,  355  ;  wife 
of,  8. 

Hopkins,  Dr.  Mark,  7 ;  birth  of,  8  ; 
teaching  of  his  mother,  9  ;  fondness 
for  nature,  10  ;  first  school,  10 ;  ap- 
titude for  learning,  11  ;  fitted  for 
college,  11  ;  taught  in  Richmond, 
12;  return  home,  13,  14:  college 
course,  14-17  ;  delicate  health,  17,  26 ; 


IXDEX. 


373 


hold  on  Christianity,  18  ;  entrance  at  I 
medical  school,  19  ;  taught  in  Stock-  1 
bridge,  19  ;  profession  of  faith,   24  ; 
tutorsliip  at  Williams,  24;  testimo-  } 
nial  from  Junior  class,  25 ;  agent  of 
American  Tract   Society,    2G  ;  M  is-  i 
ter's  oration,  27  ;  resumes   medical  | 
studies,   29;  appointed  to  Professor- 
ship   of     "Moral    Philosophy     and 
Rhetoric  "at  Williams  Cjllege,  29; 
licensed  to  preach,  29  ;  married,  20  ;  I 
appointment  to  presidency  of   Wil- 
liams, 48,  GO  ;  resignation  from  pre.si-  I 
dency,    51,  Gl  ;    inaugural    address, 
Gl  ;  teaching   anatomy   and  pliysiol-  ; 
ogy,  04  ;  purchase  of  manikin,  G4  ; 
grant  from  the  State  to  relieve  the 
college,   70 ;    college    rebellion,  73  ; 
address  on  retiring,  75 ;  publication 
of   "Oitline  Stu<ly  of  Man,"  101  ; 
his  philosophy,  101-104;  religion  in  I 
his   philosophy,    103,    104 ;     in   the  j 
class-room,     110-112;     conduct    of  [ 
prayers,     113;    sermons  in   college 
chapel,  114  ;  influence  on  the  lives  ' 
of  his  pupils,  115-130  ;  Mirk  Hop- 
kins   professorship,    122  ;    birthday 
anniversaries.  125  ;  address  on  50th 
anniversary  of  election  to  the  presi-  I 
dency  of  tlie  college,  125;  subjects 
of  teaching,  144  ;  controversy  with 
Dr.   MjCosIi,  1G3-175  ;   last  bacca- 
laureate,  194,  200  ;    sermon.  Com- 
mencement 18G2,  199  ;  president  of 
A.  B.  C.  F.  M. ,  205,  20G  ;  address  at 
Pittsfield,  208;  address  at  Pittsburgh, 
209  ;  address  at  Hirtford,  212  ;  ad- 
dress at  Milwaukee,  213 ;    address 
at  Portland,  228  ;  address  at  Boston, 
234;  last  attendance  at  A.  B.  C,  F. 
M.,   237;    address   at   Des  Moines, 
250-254;  letter  to  "Independent," 
26G-271 ;  address  at  Columbus,  317  ; 
address  to  President  GarfielJ,  337  ; 
memorial     address    on     President 
Garfield,  341  ;  lectures  at  Princeton,- 
343 ;     Republican    elector-at-large, 
345;  degrees  conferred  by  Harvard, 
34G  ;  death  of,  48,  348;  funeral  ser- 
vice, 351. 

Hopkins,  Mirk,  of  California,  296. 

Hopkins,  Mark,   Memorial   Building, 
131. 

Hopkins,  Mnry  Louisa,  30,  301,  302  ; 
deat'i  of,  Z^2. 

Hopkins,  Rev.   Samuel,  uncle  of  the 
distinguished  Samuel  Hopkins,  7. 

Hopkins,  Rev.    Dr.   Samuel,  of  New- 
port, 4,  5,  7,  329,  354,  355. 

H  >pkins,  Stephen,  3. 

Hopkins,  Timothy,  3,  4,  7. 

Housatonnuc,   early  name  for  Great 
Harrington,  4. 

Hubbell,  Dr.  Charles,  346. 


Hubbell,  Miss  Mary,   married  to  Dr. 

Hopkins,  29. 
Hume,  Rev.  Robert  A.,  24G,  247,  201, 

318,  3G1. 
Hutcheson,  Dr.  Francis,  lCO-162. 

"  Independent,"  the,  2G2,  206. 
India,  189,  318,  3G2. 
"  International,"  the,  293. 
"  Intellectual  Piiilosopliy,"  101, 
Intellectual  Pliilosophy,  Stewart's  Ele- 
ments of,  101. 

Jackson  Hall,  75. 

Jackson,  Nathan,  74. 

J. met,  1G2. 

Jevons's  Logic,  288. 

Johns  Hopkins  University,  122,  344. 

Johnson,  17G. 

"Journal  of  Science,"  144. 

Kant,  1G4,  355. 

Kellogg  Hall,  75. 

Kellogg,  Professor  Ebenezer,  24,  347. 

Latin,  147. 

"Law  of  Love,"   105.    149,    160-162, 

174,  175,  259,  288,  293,  295. 
Lawrence,  Amos,  74. 
Lawrence,  Amos  A.,  284. 
Lawrence  Hill,  75. 
Lawrence,  Lord,  G3. 
"  Lcictures  on   Moral    Science,"  144, 

147-152,  1G4,  279. 
Lee,  Mass.,  70,  115. 
Leibnitz,  325. 
Lenox  Academy,  11. 
Lesley,  Mrs.,  280. 
Lessing,  17G. 
Lewes,  George  H.,  297. 
Little  Compton,  R.  I.,  281. 
Longfellow,  287. 

Lowell  Institute,  135,  143,  149,  175. 
Lowell,  James  RusseU,  73,  176,  287  ; 

quotation  from,  58. 
Lyman,  Mrs.  Judge,  280. 

"  Man,  Christ  Jesus,"  the,  328. 

Manikin,  obtained  by  Dr.  Hopkins 
for  use  in  the  college,  64. 

Marathi  Mission,  24G. 

Marietta,  Ohio,  92,  116. 

Martineau,  James,  1G2 ;  quotation  from, 
38. 

Massachusetts,  Board  of  Education  of, 
70  ;  commonwe.nlth  of,  70  ;  General 
Court  of,  70  ;  Senate  of,  70  ;  State 
of,  70. 

McCosh,  Dr.,  lOG,  122,  IGO,  291  ;  con- 
troversy with  Dr.  Hopkins,  1G3-175. 

Medical  School  at  Pittsfield.  19,  23. 

Metaphysics,  Sir  William  Hamilton's 
lectures  on,  101. 

Michael  Angelo,  195. 


374 


INDEX 


Michigan  University,  274. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  281,  296. 

Mills,  Samuel  J.,  227,  273. 

Milwaukee,  address  at,  by  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, 213. 

•'Miscellanies,"  by  Dr.  Hopkins,  135. 

Mission  House,  117. 

Missions,  52,  53. 

Monastic  college  life,  109. 

Mooar,  Rev.  Dr.  George,  126. 

Moore,  Rev.  Dr.,  CO. 

Moral  Philosophy,  59,  160. 

"Moral  Science,"  lectures  on,  144, 
147,  164;  quotations  from,  102-103, 
148-152. 

Morris,  Philip  Van  Ness,  74. 

''  Mystery,"  Master's  oration  by  Dr. 
Hopkins,  27,  28,  144. 

Nahant,  284. 

Napoleon  First,  235. 

National  Educational  Association,  116. 

"Natural  Science  and  Religion,"  157. 

Naugatuck  Valley,  3. 

New  Britain,  Conn.,  290. 

Newcomb,  Professor  George  B.,  299. 

Newman,  Cardinal,  136,  137  ;  quota- 
tions from,  78,  VM,  204. 

New  England  colleges,  41,  44,  46,  51- 
53,  55,  81,  82. 

New  England,  modern  theology  of, 
328. 

New  Haven,  Conn.,  153,  178,  282,  2S3, 
290,  299. 

New  Orleans,  La.,  235. 

Newport,  R.  I.,  354. 

New  York  city,  14,  29,  90,  97,  299. 

New  York  State,  26. 

"New  York  Observer,"  162. 

Norfolk,  Conn. ,  42. 

"North  American  Review,"  279. 

Nott,  Judge  C.  C,  305,  335;  wife 
of,  298. 

Oakland,  Cal.,  126. 
Oberlin,  Ohio,  153. 
Observatory,  astronomical,  65,  75. 
"  Optimism,"  316,  325,  326. 
"Origin  of  Species,"  154. 
"Outline  Study   of   Man."   101,  107, 
135,  174,  175,  177,  259,  287,  293,  320. 

Paley,  31,  164. 

Palmer,  Rev.  Dr.  Charles  Ray,  280. 

Palmer,  Rev.  Dr.  Ray,  279,  280,  308, 
309. 

Parker,  Dr.  Peter,  299. 

Parsons,  Rev.  Justin  Wright,  222. 

Peabody,  Professor  A.  P.,  of  Harvard, 
44. 

Peacedale,  R.  I.,  281 

Pepkskill,  N.  Y.,  6. 

"Perfect  Love,"  sermon  by  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, 185. 


Perry,  Arthur  L.,  79. 

"Personality  and  Conscience,"  150. 

"  Pliilosophy,  Intellectual,"  101. 

Philosophy,  Stewart's  Elements  of  In- 
tellectual, 101. 

"  Physiological  Psychology,"  177,  327. 

Physiology,  study  of,  327. 

Pittsburg]  1,  address  at,  by  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, 209. 

Pittsfield,  Mass.,  70;  medical  school 
at,  19,  23 ;  relation  of  medical 
school  to  Williams  College,  41  ;  ad- 
dress by  Dr.  Hopkins  at,  208. 
j  "Place  of  Sensibility  in  Morals," 
325. 

"  Popular  Science  Monthly,"  297. 

Porter  Rhetorical  Society  of  Andover 
Theological  Seminary,  279. 

Portland,  Maine,  249  ;  address  by  Dr. 
Hopkins  at,  228. 

Price,  Professor  Bonamy,  282. 

Prime,  Rev.  Dr.  S.  Irenaeus,  302,  342. 

Princeton,  N.  J.,  162,  302,  343. 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary,  128. 

Prudential  Committee  of  the  A.  B. 
C.  F.  M.,  226,  248-256,  258,  261-2b3, 
2C8,  272,  303,  304. 

Puritans,  44. 

QuiNCY,  Mass.,  79. 

"  Receiving  and  Giving,"  sermon  by 

Dr.  Hopkins,  196. 
Reid,  Dr.  Tliomas,  16,  103,  106. 
Representatives,  House  of,  75. 
Republican  party,  308. 
Republican  ticket,  345. 
Revolution,  6,  40. 
Rhode  Island  College,  42,  43. 
Rockwell,  Colonel  A.  F.,  299, 335,  339. 
Rockwell,  Mrs.,  336. 
Ropes,  Joseph  S.,  226. 
Roxbury,  Mass.,  128. 
Rice,  Hon.  Harvey,  14. 
Rutland,  Vt.,  282. 

Sage,  Orrin,  74. 

Salem,  Mass.,  248. 

Sandwich  Islands,  235. 

Sargeant,      Electa,    wife    of    Colonel 

Mark  Hopkins,  7  ;  ancestry  of,  8. 
Sargeant,  Rev.  John,  father  of  Mrs. 

Colonel  Mark  Hopkins,  7  ;  wile  of, 

8. 
Schenectady,  N.  Y.,  351. 
Scottish  ideas,  101. 
Scottish  Philosophy,  104-106. 1C2. 
"  Scriptural  Idea  of  God,"  178. 
"  Scriptural  Idea  of  Man,"  144,  153, 

156,  1.57,  160,  161,  178,  179,  291,  321, 

328,  343  ;  extract  from,  323. 
Scudder,  David  C,  117. 
Scudder,  Horace  E.,  117,  124. 
Sedgwick,  Harry,  14. 


INDEX. 


375 


Sedgwick,  Theodore,  5. 

"  Self-Deiiial,"  sermon  by  Dr.  Hop- 
kins, 197. 

Sermons  by  Dr.  Hopkins,  "Receiving 
and  Giving,"  19'j  ;  "  Perfect  Love," 
183  ;  "  Self-Deni  il,"  l'J7  ;  "  Spirit, 
Soul  and  B.)dy,"  187;  "Strength 
and  B:^anty,"  192;  "The  Circular 
and  the  Onward  Movement,"  195. 

Sewall,  Rev.  A.  C,  351. 

Sliaftesbury,  th'rd  E  irl  of,  IGO. 

Shepard,  Rev.  Dr.  Svmuel,  GO. 

Sherman,  General  W.  T.,  299. 

Sirius,  318. 

Smith,  Alfred,  74. 

Smyth,  R3V.  Newman,  242,  243. 

Society  lor  Promotion  of  Collegiate 
and  Theological  Education  in  the 
West,  92. 

South  College,  75. 

Spencer,  Herbert,  49. 

"Spirit,  Soul  and  Body,"  sermon  by 
Dr.  Hopkins,  187. 

Spring,  Rev.  Dr.  Leverett,  260. 

Springfield,  Mass.,  258,  272,  274. 

Stockbridge,  5,  8,  9,  19,  26,  27,  64-66, 
284;  academy,  11. 

"  Strength  and  B2anty,"  sermon  by 
Dr.  Hopkins,  135,  190,  192. 

Switzerland,  307. 

Tatlock,  Rev.  Dr.  John,  128. 

Taylor,  Dr.  Samuel  H.,  80. 

"  Teaciiings  and  Counsels,"  135. 

Tenney,  Sanborn,  79. 

Tennyson,  quotations  from,  22,  240. 

Topeka,  Kans.,  116. 

Treat,  Rsv.  Selah  B.,  291. 

Troy,  N.  Y.,  68. 

Trustees  of  Williams  College,  40,  41, 

338,  341. 
Turkey,  222. 
Tytler,  C.  C.  Fraser,  quotation  from, 

350. 

Ulysses,  76. 

"  Unity  of  Nature,"  the,  156. 

Vaughan,  Heury,  quotation  from,  312. 
Vincent  on  the  "  Westminster  Assem- 


bly's Shorter  Catecliism,"  33,  128, 
144,  259. 
Virginia,  12,  13. 

Walker,  William  J.,  74. 

Wallace,  Alfred  R.,  158,  159. 

Ware,  Mass.,  74. 

Warren,  Rev.  Dr.  William  F.,  290. 

Washington,  D.  C,  298,  301,  3UG,  307, 
335,  344,  346. 

Waterbury,  Conn.,  3. 

Wayland,  President,  of  Brown  Uni- 
versity, 44. 

Webb,  Rev.  Dr.  E.  B.,  290. 

West  College,  75. 

Westminster  Catechism,  259. 

Whately,  Archbishop,  115. 

White,  Joseph,  .secretary  of  Mass. 
State  Board  of  Education,  70. 

White  Plains,  fight  at,  6. 

Whitney,  Professor  William  D.,  of 
Yale,  121. 

Whittier,  quotations  from,  134,  182. 

Wilcox,  Mirshall,  70. 

William.s,  Colonel  Ephraim,  father  of 
the  founder  of  Williams  College,  8. 

Williams,  Colonel  Ephraim,  founder 
of  Williams  College,  8.  41. 

Williams  College,  founder  of,  8;  Dr. 
Hopkins  entered,  graduated,  14 ; 
Dr.  Hopkins  became  a  tutor  in,  24  ; 
became  a  professor,  29  ;  Dr.  Hop- 
kins's permanent  identification  with, 
39  ;  chartered,  40  ;  relation  to  Pitti- 
field  Medical  School,  41 ;  first  trus- 
tees of,  41,  42  ;  religious  tone  of, 
43-45,  46  ;  introduction  of  certain 
elective  studies,  48,  49  ;  Dr.  Hop- 
kins elected  president,  GO,  62  ;  grant 
to  college  from  the  State,  70  ;  rebel- 
lion, 79-98  ;  character  of  students 
during  Dr.  Hopkins's  administra- 
tion, 109  ;  inauguration  of  Franklin 
Carter,  340. 

Williamstown  Academy,  27. 

Wilson,  Lavalette,  125. 

Withrow,  Rev.  Dr.  J.  L.,  303. 

Woman's  Board,  227. 

WooLsey,  President,  44,  122,  291. 

Wordsworth,  quotation  from,  2. 

Wright,  Arthur  W.,  79. 


American  ISeligious  LeaDerg. 

A  Series  of  Biographies  of  Men  who  have  had  great 

influence  on   Religious  Thought  and 

Life  in  the  United  States. 


JONATHAN  EDWARDS.     By   Professor   A.  V.  G. 

Allen,  author  of  "  The  Continuity  of  Christian  Thought." 

DR.  MUHLENBERG.    By  Rev.  William  Wilberforce 

Newton. 

WILBUR   FISK.     By  Professor  George  Prentice,  of 

Wesleyan  University. 

FRANCIS    WAYLAND.     By  Professor  J.  O.  Mur- 
ray, of  Princeton. 
CHARLES  G.  FINNEY.  By  Professor  G.  Frederick 

Wright. 
MARK  HOPKINS.     By   President  Franklin  Carter, 
of  Williams  College. 

In  Preparation. 

HENRY  BOYNTON    SMITH.     By  Professor  L.  F. 

Stearns,  of  Bangor  Theological  Seminary,  Bangor,  Me. 
ARCHBISHOP    HUGHES.      By   John    G.    Shea, 

LL.  D.,  author  of  "The  Catholic  Authors  of  America,"  etc. 

CHARLES  HODGE.     By  President  Francis  L.  Pat- 
ton,  of  Trinceton. 

THEODORE  PARKER.     By  John  Fiske,  author  of 
"The   Idea  of   God,"  "  Outlines  of  Cosmic  Philosophy,"  etc. 

This  series  includes  biographies  of  eminent  men 
who  represent  the  theology  and  methods  of  the  va- 
rious religious  denominations  of  America.  The  Se- 
ries when  completed  will  not  only  depict  in  a  clear 
and  memorable  way  several  great  figures  in  American 
religious  history,  but  will  indicate  the  leading  charac- 
teristics of  that  history,  the  progress  and  process  of 
religious  philosophyin  America,  the  various  types  of 
theology  which  have  shaped  or  been  shaped  by  the 
various  churches,  and  the  relation  of  these  to  the  life 
and  thought  of  the  Nation. 

Other  volntnes  to  be  annoiniced  hereafter.     Each  volume,  i6mo, 

gilt  top,  $/.2J. 

HOUGHTON,    MIFFLIN   AND   COMPANY, 
4  Park, St,  Bosrox.   ii  East  ijth  St.,  New  York. 


American  Coittmontoealtl^^* 

Edited  by  Horace  E.  Scudder. 
VIRGINIA.   A  History  of  the  People.   ByJohnEsten 

Cooke,  author  of  "  Life  of  Stonewall  Jackson,"  etc. 

OREGON.    Tlie  Struggle  for  Possession.    By  William 

Barrows,  D.  D. 

MARYLAND.  The  History  of  a  Palatinate.  By  Wil- 
liam Hand  Browne,  Associate  of  Johns  Hopkins  University. 

KENTUCKY.  A  Pioneer  Commonwealth.  By  Na- 
thaniel S.  Shaler,  S.  D.,  Professor  of  Palaeontology,  Harvard  Uni- 
versity. 

MICHIGAN.  A  History  of  Governments.  By  Thomas 

Mclntyre  Cooley,  LL.  D.,  formerly  Chief  Justice  of  Michigan. 

KANSAS.     The  Prelude  to  the  War  for  the  Union. 

By  Leverett  W.  Spring,  formerly  Professor  in  English  Literature  in 
the  University  of  Kansas. 

CALIFORNIA.     From  the  Conquest  in  1846  to  the 

Second  Vigilance  Committee  in  San  Francisco.  A  Study  of  American 
Character.  By  Josiah  Royce,  Assistant  Professor  of  Philosophy  in 
Harvard  University,  formerly  Professor  in  the  University  of  California. 

NEW  YORK.     The  Planting  and  the  Growth  of  the 

Empire  State.  By  the  Hon.  Ellis  H.  Roberts,  Editor  of  the  Utica 
Herald.     In  two  volumes. 

CONNECTICUT.  A  Study  of  a  Commonwealth  De- 
mocracy. By  Professor  Alexander  Johnston,  author  of  "  American 
Pontics." 

MISSOURI.    A  Bone  of  Contention.   By  Lucien  Carr, 

M.  A.,  Assistant  Curator  of  the  Feabody  Museum  of  Archaeology. 

INDIANA.     A  Redemption  from  Slavery.     By  J.  P. 

Dunn,  Jr.,  author  of  "  Massacres  of  the  Mountains." 

OHIO.     First  Fruits  of  the  Ordinance  of  1787.     By 

Hon.  Rufus  King. 

VERMONT.     By  Rowland  E.  Robinson. 

///  Preparation. 
NEW  JERSEY.     By  Austin  Scott,  Ph.  D. 
ILLINOIS.     By  E.  G.  Mason. 
SOUTH  CAROLINA.     By  Edward  McCrad)^  Jr. 
With  Maps.     Each  volu77te,  i6mo,  gilt  top,  %i-2^' 

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American  ^tate^mett* 

Edited  by  John  T.  Morse,  Jr. 


JOHN  QUINCY  ADAMS.     By  John  T.  Morse,  Jr., 

author  of  "  A  Life  of  Alexander  Hamilton,"  etc. 

ALEXANDER    HAMILTON.      By    Henry   Cabot 

Lodge,  author  of  "  The  English  Colonies  in  America,"  etc. 

JOHN  C.  CALHOUN.     By  Dr.  H.  von  Hoist,  au- 

thor  of  the  "  Constitutional  History  of  the  United  States." 

ANDREW  JACKSON.     By  Prof.  William  G.  Sum- 

ner,  author  of  "  History  of  American  Currency,"  etc. 

JOHN  RANDOLPH.     By  Henry  Adams,  author  of 

"  New  England  Federalism,"  etc. 

JAMES  MONROE.     By  D.  C.  Oilman,  President  of 

Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore. 

THOMAS  JEFEERSON.     By  John  T.  Morse,  Jr. 
DANIEL  WEBSTER.     By  Henry  Cabot  Lodge. 
ALBERT   GALLATIN.     By  John  Austin   Stevens, 

recently  editor  of  "  The  Magazine  of  American  History." 

JAMES  MADISON.     By  Sydney  Howard  Gay,  au- 

thor  (with  William  Cullen  Bryant)  of  "  A  Popular  History  of  the 

United  States." 

JOHN  ADAMS.     By  John  T.  Morse,  Jr. 
JOHN  MARSHALL.     By  Allan  B.  Magruder. 
SAMUEL  ADAMS.     By  James  K.  Hosmer,  author 

of  "  A  Short  History  of  German  Literature,"  etc. 

THOMAS  HART  BENTON.     By  Theodore  Roose- 

velt,  author  of  "  Hunting  Trips  of  a  Ranchman,"  etc 

HENRY   CLAY.     By  Hon.  Carl  Schurz.     2  vols. 
PATRICK  HENRY.     By  Moses  Coit  Tyler,  author 

of  "  History  of  American  Literature,"  etc. 

GOUVERNEUR   MORRIS.     By  Theodore  Roose- 
velt. 
MARTIN  VAN  BUREN.     By  Edward  M.  Shepard. 
GEORGE  WASHINGTON.     By  Hon.  Henry  Cabot 

Lodge.     In  two  volumes. 

BENJAMIN   FRANKLIN.     By  John  T.  Morse,  Jr. 

JOHN  JAY.     By  George  Pellew,  author  of  "  Woman 

and  the  Commonwealth." 
LEWIS  CASS.     By  Prof.  Andrew  C.  McLaughlin,  of 

the  University  of  Michigan. 
Other  volumes  to  be  a7inounced  hereafter.    Each  volume,  uniform, 
i6mo,  gilt  top,  $1.2 J  ;   half  morocco,  $2.^0. 

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ametican  jBm  of  Letters* 

Edited  by  Charles  Dudley  Warner. 


WASHINGTON    IRVING.      By    Charles    Dudley 

Warner,  author  of  "  In  the  Levant,"  etc. 

NOAH  WEBSTER.     By  Horace  E.  Scudder,  author 

of  "  stories  and  Romances,"  "  A   History  of  the  United  States  of 
America,"  etc. 

HENRY  D.  THOREAU.     By  Frank  B.  Sanborn. 
GEORGE  RIPLEY.     By  Octavius  Brooks  Frothing- 

hain,  author  of  "  Transcendentalism  in  New  England." 

JAMES    FENIMORE    COOPER.     By  Thomas   R. 

Lounsbury,  Professor  of  English  in  the  Scientific  School  of  Yale  Col- 
kge, 

MARGARET     FULLER    OSSOLI.       By    Thomas 

Wentworth  Higginson,  author  of  "  Malbone,"  "  Oldport  Days,"  etc. 

RALPH  WALDO  EMERSON.     By  Oliver  Wendell 

Holmes,  author  of  "  The  Autocrat  of  the  Breakfast-Table,"  etc 

EDGAR  ALLAN  POE.     By  George  E.  Woodberry, 

author  of  "A  History  of  Wood  Engraving." 

NATHANIEL   PARKER  WILLIS.     By  Henry  A. 

Beers,  Professor  of  English  Literature  in  Yale  College, 

BENJAMIN  FRANKLIN.     By  John  Bach  McMas- 

ter,  author  of  "  History  of  the  People  of  the  United  States," 

WILLIAM  CULLEN  BRYANT.    By  John  Bigelow, 

author  of  "  Molinos  the  Quietist,"  etc, 

WILLIAM  GILMORE  SIMMS.  By  WilHam  P. 
Trent,  Professor  of  English  Literature  in  the  University  of 
the  South,  Sewanee,  Tenn. 

Other  volumes  to  be  ajinounced  hereafter.     Each  volume^  with 
Portrait^  i6mo^  gilt  top ^  $1.2^  ;  half  morocco^  %2.^o. 

HOUGHTON,    MIFFLIN    AND    COMPANY. 

4  Park  St.,  Boston;  ii  East  17TH  St.,  New  York, 


Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Libraries 


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